Match-fixing needs to be fixed — finally

Pakistan’s players find themselves accused once again of being part of a betting syndicate and cricket finds itself in another mess. The revelation by the British tabloid, The News of the World, that some Pakistani players took money to bowl no-balls during the just concluded test match against England at Lords has shaken the cricket world.

The newspaper recorded a “fixer’ explaining just when and in which overs the no-balls would be bowled and by whom. He also talked of the money paid for doing this and further visual evidence was provided of a jacket filled with money being passed on by him to some cricketers.But the problem is not just about the trouble Pakistani cricket finds itself in. The larger question is whether cricket’s credibility itself is under threat, now that the problem has been around for a decade since it first surfaced around 2000. Some action was taken then but, in hindsight, it seems that sticking plaster was used where surgery was needed. Pakistan may find that it is gradually being isolated as its players seem most vulnerable to betting syndicates, but to limit the action to players from that country would be both short-sighted and naïve.The cricket establishment needs to take this threat seriously because it attacks the very credibility of the game. Many other sports have been through similar crises and all of them have been forced to clean up their acts. The various bodies which administer cricket at the local, country and international levels need to figure out how they are going to monitor players and betting syndicates simultaneously.

Once they do that, they also need to make punishments truly deterrent. The ad-hoc, country-specific approach has failed — as we can clearly see. India, for instance, banned players for life while some South Africans and Pakistanis are back in the game and Australia took the “our boys are naïve country bumpkins discussing the weather” approach. It took cricket a few years to recover from the debacle of 2000. Does the sport want to go through that and worse again? If not, cogent thought and fast action are imperative.