Zebronic
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It is understandable how South Africa and New Zealand are now anxiously viewing events unfolding around the Pakistan team and management in England, with some concern.
As the two countries that are to play Pakistan after the current England tour, it is of financial worry how seriously such tours can be viewed by public growing more sceptical by the day, whether they are financially viable. More so as the exposures taking place within the team environment suggest a badly managed side with a maladjusted board chairman Ijaz (the egomaniac) Butt, who, it now seems, has gone into hiding, making even harder for the dysfunctional PCB to operate.
With him in charge, Pakistan treat the media as an obstacle, not an opportunity to explain how easier it is to lie than it is to tell anything like the truth.
Little wonder that Justin Vaughn, CEO of New Zealand Cricket, has already expressed a view how the public view Pakistan's current erratic playing barometer and its impact on NZC's finances with interest in a tour now subject to an on-going International Cricket Council probe. While readers in India will say "Who cares!" this view would also explain how myopic it is. Any impact on a tour of this nature and its schedule affects the long-term view of the game and how this can alienate spectators and future public support for the game.
It could also mean how a future tour of New Zealand by any Asian side could be viewed with suspicion of match-fixing in one form or another. This is the danger facing the game as a whole. So get rid of your blinkers and realise there is another world outside India and teams such as New Zealand and England have decent and honourable Asian players in their ranks as well.
There is more than one example of how Pakistan have cheated at matches in front of a public who have paid money to see an honest contest but left with a feeling of being defrauded. Apart from The Oval fiasco and Darrell Hair's decision to award five penalty runs for ball tampering, there are growing concerns now that the "shoot out" at Kingsmead in Durban on September 14, 2007, was fixed as well. Not so? Really?
Scores tied at 141. All you need to do is examine very closely the bowling performances of the three Pakistan bowlers on YouTube to those of the Indians. It is the second ball, delivered by Umar Gul, which gives it away, a full delivery that skids through. And this after Yasir Arafat delivered the first ball, also full but drifting outside the off-stump. Gul didn't bowl from a normal run up, jogging up with no rhythm in the delivery.
The umpire, West Indian Billy Doctrove, and match referee Mike Procter were the only non-players on the field with Virender Sehwag bowling the first ball, with which the off-spinner hit the leg stump. With Harbhajan Singh's well-flighted delivery hitting the middle and off-stumps and Robin Uthappa successfully bowling the third, India were through.
Of course, Pakistan's coach at the time, Geoff Lawson, will angrily deny such allegations, yet the delivery of Gul explains it. Why was Arafat switched to deliver the first ball instead of Gul, no one can really explain; or whether it was part of a gameplan, or if Pakistan had one for such an eventuality.
The then Pakistan captain, Shoaib Malik, made the excuse that he wasn't aware a "bowling shootout" would be used in the event of a tie. How interesting! Either he is too obtuse, or the management were, as the playing conditions for the first ICC World T20 are specific enough. There was grumbling on some websites and in the print media how it was an unnecessary gimmick.
That may be but word soon spread that bookies didn't find it a gimmick and that they had cleaned up an estimated USD 100-million or 500 crore on what amounted to six minutes of Pakistan deliverance in Durban.
This is the kind of activity why so-called Croydon property developer Mazher Majeed, now exposed as a crooked agent in spot-fixing games, has been able to make a monkey out of the ICC's anti-corruption and security unit until caught. If the ACSU were so alert, why had they not come across his name before it was uncovered in a newspaper sting. Why? Because the ACSU act as does a secret society, well almost.
Ask a direct question and the official line through the media to everyone has been "We don't comment on investigations." It was pointed out by Colin Gibson of the ICC media and communications section that anything else is speculation.
In all this, the Asia Cricket Council have not said a word, or issued a statement, ignoring three email inquiries whether they were aware that the opening game, between Pakistan and Sri Lanka on June 15 this year, had part of a match-fixing scenario operated by Majeed. Maybe they were in on the "fix".
What is now looming is a conspiracy of lies and deceit in a widening bubble of silence as players are supposedly being examined for malpractice, yet nothing has been done to expose them. One is a Sri Lankan, of whom it is known consorted with illegal bookmakers in England last year during the ICC World T20 event. The information was included in a manager's report. Unfortunately, instead of action, those running Sri Lanka Cricket fired the manager Brendon Kuruppu and swept the issue aside.
Why has the player not been charged by the ICC ACSU after their initial investigation, especially as they were so quick to book the three Pakistan players? All this has allowed the SLC to continue with their "protective action" over the matter of a senior player's behaviour in Zimbabwe during the triangular series earlier this year despite so-called investigation being ordered by senior government officials.
Last weekend, ICC CEO, Haroon Lorgat, told BBC radio how "we (the ICC) want to be prompt and decisive on this matter. It is not something we want to drag our heels on and as soon as we are in a position to make charges and disclosures, we will do so." Well, so far, all there has been is a series of allegations and claims, of how the Asia Cup was being investigated, but again the ACSU declined to explain whether it is more than one game, involving more than one player.
It has been suggested a player hid his mobile phone in his helmet at the Asia Cup. Why is this not too surprising after the Mohammad Amir "caught on TV" moment was screened on non-rights TV channels?
Whether the Pakistan tax authorities will turn up anything will create some interest; looking at their bank statements is one way, the other is to examine the book(s) of their agent(s). It is time anyway for the ICC to closely examine all Asian agents and their books, whether Indian, Sri Lankan, Pakistani and those hiding out in the United Arab Emirates.
South Africa play Pakistan in a series of Tests and ODIs/T20s in the UAE in late October and early November, and as with New Zealand would like some finality of the latest ACSU probe and players charged; otherwise the series is likely to be played with serious suspicions about the validity of the results.
CricketNext
As the two countries that are to play Pakistan after the current England tour, it is of financial worry how seriously such tours can be viewed by public growing more sceptical by the day, whether they are financially viable. More so as the exposures taking place within the team environment suggest a badly managed side with a maladjusted board chairman Ijaz (the egomaniac) Butt, who, it now seems, has gone into hiding, making even harder for the dysfunctional PCB to operate.
With him in charge, Pakistan treat the media as an obstacle, not an opportunity to explain how easier it is to lie than it is to tell anything like the truth.
Little wonder that Justin Vaughn, CEO of New Zealand Cricket, has already expressed a view how the public view Pakistan's current erratic playing barometer and its impact on NZC's finances with interest in a tour now subject to an on-going International Cricket Council probe. While readers in India will say "Who cares!" this view would also explain how myopic it is. Any impact on a tour of this nature and its schedule affects the long-term view of the game and how this can alienate spectators and future public support for the game.
It could also mean how a future tour of New Zealand by any Asian side could be viewed with suspicion of match-fixing in one form or another. This is the danger facing the game as a whole. So get rid of your blinkers and realise there is another world outside India and teams such as New Zealand and England have decent and honourable Asian players in their ranks as well.
There is more than one example of how Pakistan have cheated at matches in front of a public who have paid money to see an honest contest but left with a feeling of being defrauded. Apart from The Oval fiasco and Darrell Hair's decision to award five penalty runs for ball tampering, there are growing concerns now that the "shoot out" at Kingsmead in Durban on September 14, 2007, was fixed as well. Not so? Really?
Scores tied at 141. All you need to do is examine very closely the bowling performances of the three Pakistan bowlers on YouTube to those of the Indians. It is the second ball, delivered by Umar Gul, which gives it away, a full delivery that skids through. And this after Yasir Arafat delivered the first ball, also full but drifting outside the off-stump. Gul didn't bowl from a normal run up, jogging up with no rhythm in the delivery.
The umpire, West Indian Billy Doctrove, and match referee Mike Procter were the only non-players on the field with Virender Sehwag bowling the first ball, with which the off-spinner hit the leg stump. With Harbhajan Singh's well-flighted delivery hitting the middle and off-stumps and Robin Uthappa successfully bowling the third, India were through.
Of course, Pakistan's coach at the time, Geoff Lawson, will angrily deny such allegations, yet the delivery of Gul explains it. Why was Arafat switched to deliver the first ball instead of Gul, no one can really explain; or whether it was part of a gameplan, or if Pakistan had one for such an eventuality.
The then Pakistan captain, Shoaib Malik, made the excuse that he wasn't aware a "bowling shootout" would be used in the event of a tie. How interesting! Either he is too obtuse, or the management were, as the playing conditions for the first ICC World T20 are specific enough. There was grumbling on some websites and in the print media how it was an unnecessary gimmick.
That may be but word soon spread that bookies didn't find it a gimmick and that they had cleaned up an estimated USD 100-million or 500 crore on what amounted to six minutes of Pakistan deliverance in Durban.
This is the kind of activity why so-called Croydon property developer Mazher Majeed, now exposed as a crooked agent in spot-fixing games, has been able to make a monkey out of the ICC's anti-corruption and security unit until caught. If the ACSU were so alert, why had they not come across his name before it was uncovered in a newspaper sting. Why? Because the ACSU act as does a secret society, well almost.
Ask a direct question and the official line through the media to everyone has been "We don't comment on investigations." It was pointed out by Colin Gibson of the ICC media and communications section that anything else is speculation.
In all this, the Asia Cricket Council have not said a word, or issued a statement, ignoring three email inquiries whether they were aware that the opening game, between Pakistan and Sri Lanka on June 15 this year, had part of a match-fixing scenario operated by Majeed. Maybe they were in on the "fix".
What is now looming is a conspiracy of lies and deceit in a widening bubble of silence as players are supposedly being examined for malpractice, yet nothing has been done to expose them. One is a Sri Lankan, of whom it is known consorted with illegal bookmakers in England last year during the ICC World T20 event. The information was included in a manager's report. Unfortunately, instead of action, those running Sri Lanka Cricket fired the manager Brendon Kuruppu and swept the issue aside.
Why has the player not been charged by the ICC ACSU after their initial investigation, especially as they were so quick to book the three Pakistan players? All this has allowed the SLC to continue with their "protective action" over the matter of a senior player's behaviour in Zimbabwe during the triangular series earlier this year despite so-called investigation being ordered by senior government officials.
Last weekend, ICC CEO, Haroon Lorgat, told BBC radio how "we (the ICC) want to be prompt and decisive on this matter. It is not something we want to drag our heels on and as soon as we are in a position to make charges and disclosures, we will do so." Well, so far, all there has been is a series of allegations and claims, of how the Asia Cup was being investigated, but again the ACSU declined to explain whether it is more than one game, involving more than one player.
It has been suggested a player hid his mobile phone in his helmet at the Asia Cup. Why is this not too surprising after the Mohammad Amir "caught on TV" moment was screened on non-rights TV channels?
Whether the Pakistan tax authorities will turn up anything will create some interest; looking at their bank statements is one way, the other is to examine the book(s) of their agent(s). It is time anyway for the ICC to closely examine all Asian agents and their books, whether Indian, Sri Lankan, Pakistani and those hiding out in the United Arab Emirates.
South Africa play Pakistan in a series of Tests and ODIs/T20s in the UAE in late October and early November, and as with New Zealand would like some finality of the latest ACSU probe and players charged; otherwise the series is likely to be played with serious suspicions about the validity of the results.
CricketNext
