The article by Lord Paul Condon, the first head of the ICC’s ACSU, in the London Evening Standard yesterday represented worrying reading.
Whilst most of us feared that the extent of match-fixing in the 1990s went beyond the few cricketers that were hung out to dry and ostracised from the game at the time, Condon made it clear that the stain on the sport was not confined just to the likes of Hansie Cronje, Mohammad Azharuddin and Salim Malik.
Indeed, Condon stated that match-fixing had been rife since the 1980s "in the late 1990s, Test and World Cup matches were being routinely fixed". He also said that “Every international team, at some stage, had someone doing some funny stuff."
Whilst Condon’s comments have provoked much consternation within the game, it does beggar the question why if things were as bad as he said were not more players investigated, banned and shamed. This is yet another stone to cast at the door of the ICC in the week that their much vaunted Test Championship has been postponed until at least 2017.
Condon suggests that by the time of the 2003 World Cup, the wholesale fixing of matches had been eradicated and the much more sophisticated practice of spot-fixing had taken over.
If Condon is right, then spot-fixing has been going on for more than eight years and if this disease has infected the premier international limited-overs competition and a Test match at Lord’s, one can only imagine how deep this curse runs in both international and domestic cricket across the globe. The trial of Mervyn Westfield in January next year will tell us more.
Condon is clearly suggesting that spot-fixing is as common in cricket today as other gambling past-times such as roulette, blackjack, slot machines or the increasingly popular online casino phenomenon are in the world at large. But whilst these are harmless and enjoyable ways of winning (or losing) money, the sinister growth of spot-fixing is most certainly not.
In the wake of the sentences handed out to Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, we advocated some immediate steps for the ICC and the individual cricket boards to take. These included life bans for anyone found guilty, suspensions whilst investigations are undertaken and increased powers for the ACSU.
Cricket needs to wake up to the fact that it has a real problem and take the right steps to get its house in order. That means tough decisions and real action, not the fannying around that is the ICC’s current approach.
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Lord Condon cannot be allowed to throw out non-specific allegations about corruption being rampant during the late '80s and '90s without going on to provide concrete instances. He must, even now, justify his erstwhile position as head of the ACSU, because if he does not, all his comments will have done is to leave a poisonous stench that does nothing except further damage to the integrity of the game he was appointed to protect! The ICC should be damanding no less from him in the light of his Evening Standard article. If they sit on their hands, the speculative thought arises that they also knew of the nefarious practices taking place at the time - and would rather not go there for fear of some of their number being found complicit. Lord Condon has fashioned his own cleft stick. Now he must put up his evidence or retract his vague but damaging allegations.
Posted by: Ian | Friday, November 18, 2011 at 12:33