It's just not Cricket...

[mintogrubb]

I don't usually read the sports pages, but Sport has recently become front page news in England

Comments

[policraticus]

Didn't they already tag the South Africans and the Australians for this kind of fixing a few years ago? I thought the reverberations went around the Commonwealth back then.

Modern world? Haven't you ever heard of the Black Sox?

[anfalicious]

Most of that was either unproven or fairly innocuous. Ricky Ponting got a fine because he gave a pitch report to a bookie, meaningful information for the bookie, but not really corrupting for the player.

[policraticus]

I just remember reading about it and figured that if it was a big enough deal to get the attention of the US sports media it must be a big deal. I mean, cricket?

[johnny9fingers]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansie_Cronje

[underlankers]

*rifles through a history of the reign of Aurelius Commodus. Breaks into gigglesnort and walks away.*

[allhatnocattle]

I'll bet my Pete Rose rookie card that this isn't the only scandal to, um, scandalize cricket.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Grobbelaar

[anfalicious]

You know there's a difference between football and cricket right? :P

[mintogrubb]

I would not bet on a Canadian knowing the differnce between a soccer goalie for Liverpool FC and a pakistani bowler in the national cricket team - they are all hockey fans :)

But football, boxing, horse racing and many other sports have become tarnished before by big money being thrown around by unscrupulous people.

It is sad, somehow, that this time, it's cricket.

[anfalicious]

A good Pakistani player earns about 30K a year. A good Indian player gets over a million.

[mintogrubb]

Yeah. but it is down to the cricket watching public to keep the game clean.

So long as illegalbets are being taken , and there are punters wanting to make illegal bets with the bookies in sufficient number, there will always be the money to offer these young players in the developing world.

[htpcl]

Match fixing is widespread in many sports, and also doping fraud. Just look at soccer - entire seasons in the top leagues are being pre-determined by the gambling gurus (including in my country). In Italy the problem is chronic. Where there's huge money there's huge fraud.

[johnny9fingers]

And there's no solution to it either.

[htpcl]

Oh, there is. The gas chambers.