There’s a constant murmur surrounding our beautiful game. No facts, no names, nothing proven but constant whispers, rumours and questions.
Fixing or more importantly the suspicions of fixing are becoming cancerous.
In a week where Hashan Tillikaratne has said he will appear before the ICC and name names about Sri Lankan match fixing and where Sports Illustrated ran with this piece (again no real facts, but a good appraisal), we’re all straining under the weight of wondering….. suspiciously checking scoring rate patterns, betting patterns and every time there’s a no ball, the simultaneous shaking of heads might just be enough to cause a tornado.
I’m not naive enough to think it never happens. I’m sure it happens. Whilst gambling remains illegal and agents remain unregulated in the sub-continent we’re fighting an uphill battle. But is it enough to just shrug our shoulders and continue with the whispers? It’s also quite difficult to discuss the whole matter openly and honestly without being accused of implicit or explicit racism.
Of course, it was pointed out to me the other night when discussing this with friends over a curry, that maybe people don’t want to know. Maybe they don’t care. Maybe most cricket fans just enjoy the game and if there’s some fixing so what? Nobody dies. Maybe people just don’t want to know the gory details?
But it might not be the facts that cripple the game, it might be the lack of facts that cripple it.
We saw what happened to poor Zulquernain Haider after he tried to speak out. He couldn’t or wouldn’t name names and became a laughing stock who is seemingly nearly having a mental breakdown all played out via social media. We know that Tillikaratne has received death threats – even if his motives are dubious – that’s just a ridiculous situation to be in over sport.
I can’t help but feel that the whispers, the rumours, the speculation are perhaps even more damaging than the fixing itself.
Someone needs to dig and dig deep, we need names, matches, times and places. Someone far more talented than me at investigative journalism needs to grip this one. It’s getting out of hand and it’s heartbreaking.
The ICC remain more than a little toothless on the whole subject and that’s being kind. They can only find people guilty, punish accordingly (or not as the case may be)and have any hope of tackling the problem if we move past rumours and into the world of facts. But even that is reactive. Their education programme whilst worthy is a blanket approach to all players. They aren’t proactive in investigating. They wait for things to be “pointed out” to them. Why should it be down to journalists (scrupulous or unscrupulous) to do the investigations?
And yes, of course I realise that’s easier said than done.
