Causes of the recent controversy are better explained by how cricket has been run in Pakistan given the PCB itself is an unstable administrative body riven with powerplay
Causes of the recent controversy are better explained by how cricket has been run in Pakistan given the PCB itself is an unstable administrative body riven with powerplayLet's face it; what the News of The World has exposed over the past few days uncovers the grisly underbelly of cricket which is otherwise hidden in the so-called stellar virtue of being a 'Gentleman's Game'. Even if everything that is unraveling through the sting operation is not conclusively proved, enough has been seen and heard to convince anybody that there is something amiss.
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| Ridicule: Pakistani cricket fans burn an effigy of captain Salman Butt during a protest against the ongoing spot fixing scandal in Karachi yesterday. pic/afp |
It would be presumptuous, however, to believe that only Pakistan's cricketers are guilty of corruption. In 2000, it might be remembered, names of players from almost all cricket-playing countries came out in the open for one reason or another. This time, some Pakistan players are cornered, but nobody is convinced that this is the end of the story.u00a0
The ease with which spot-fixing is possible and can go unnoticed till somebody is caught is alarming to say the least. The fear that the disease could be cancerous is real and must occupy the minds of the game's administrators, notably new ICC president Sharad Pawar.
Yet Pakistan's case is peculiar from the rest of the cricket world where match-fixing is concerned. Long time observers will aver that the current controversy was inevitable given the tardy approach of the PCB to lick the problem. There is a litany of juicy stories involving Pakistan players through the 15-20 years. Not all of them may be true but the sheer frequency of 'unusual happenings' has constantly added grist to rumour mills.
Indeed, levels of suspicion were so high that when Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer died during the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, it was speculated that he had been killed by bookie accomplices of some players because he had come down on their nefarious activities.u00a0
u00a0Woolmer, as it turned out, had died of medical causes, but the travails of Inzamam's team highlighted just how suspect Pakistan players had become since the mid-1990s when Mark Waugh and Shane Warne disclosed that they had been offered money to throw a match by Pakistan captain Salim Malik during an Australia tour of Pakistan.
There has been no respite to rumour and allegation about Pakistan cricket since then but in spite of some solid evidence (notably after the scam of circa 2000 when several players were named along with Malik) and advice to take stronger action, the PCB has buried its head in the sand and let the disease fester. If The News of The World reports are true it appears that the problem is perhaps institutionalised to an extent that even newcomers Mohammed Amir and Wahab Riaz have got sucked into it, and new captain Salman Butt is willing to risk everything too.
Why?But why should players play such high stakes with their careers?u00a0 Human greed is not easily explained in any case though some social scientists and political analysts have postulated that how cricket operates in Pakistan is a mirror to the state of the country itself. Even if loaded with some truth value, that's a weighty premise to argue out substantially.
The causes are relatively better explained by how cricket has been run in Pakistan. By all accounts the PCB has been guilty of gross unconcern about player interest and welfare because it has been an unstable administrative body itself riven with powerplay. Selections committees have been wiped out overnight,u00a0u00a0 captains and players have been chopped and changed at whim, leading to colossal mistrust everywhere in the system.
Allegations of fixing and other kinds of corruption have been waged by players' groups against the administration and against each other too. Add to this the insecurity of not knowing whether the country would be playing cricket again or not (no country is willing to tour Pakistan after the terror attack on Sri Lanka in 2009, off-shore cricket remains iffy) and the recipe for the current disaster gets sharper definition.
Where does cricket go from here? It would be counter-productive to ban Pakistan from international cricket. At the same time, the situation cannot be allowed to fester any longer. Ruthless action and prompt action against wrong-doers is warranted; mentoring young cricketers about the temptations that lie in store when they play at the international level is no less important.
The Pakistan government, law and order agencies, and civil society must also raise their voice against something that casts a slur not just on the sport, but also shames the country. Above all, though, the solution to this problem lies with players themselves, not entirely with external or internal policing.
If they show integrity, the malaise is dissipated ufffd and this holds true not just for Pakistan cricketers.
