The Sweet Spot

Perhaps ICC Chief, Haroon Lorgat’s response overnight to the Pakistan betting fiasco summed it up best.

"Very, very disappointed. I guess... I'm at a loss for words to describe how not just myself but every loving cricketer and fan will be feeling right now…it's not good for the reputation and the image of the game”.

So what if the allegations are proven correct that Pakistan's bowlers were paid to deliberately bowl no-balls on the opening day of the fourth test against England at Lord's?

What if evidence emerges that January's Sydney Test between Australia and Pakistan was also rigged?

Whilst the sport’s governing body, the ICC, is keen to drive home its anti-corruption message, it remains extremely unlikely. Some, including its former Chief Malcolm Speed, have pushed for Pakistan to be suspended from all competition.

As former Pakistan national coach, Geoff Lawson says, “that would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater…. and would put the game back many, many years”.

What does seem likely though is that those implicated may be looking at a lifetime ban, including captain Salman Butt, opening bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif and wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal.

They’ll know soon enough when Pakistani and ICC officials meet to decide if the implicated players should be suspended from the two Twenty20 games and five one-day internationals against England starting next week.

The easiest way of rationalizing the incident would be by labeling the players opportunistic cheats. 

However, that would be too simplistic and indeed naïve an explanation - and certainly a view Australia’s former paceman refuses to subscribe to having lived and breathed Pakistan cricket as head coach from 2007 to 2008.

To understand the real motives, Lawson suggests a more sinister element may be at play, namely that players were forced into spot-fixing due to threats against their families - Mafia stand-over style.

Furthermore, the huge disparity in player wages may have contributed to the fiasco, a factor Lawson, while stopping short of condoning match-fixing, believes the Australian media has continually overlooked.

"Some of our players, Australian players, are getting paid $2 million a year (including endorsements) to play cricket, and these guys (Pakistan players) are getting paid $30,000 or $40,000….And I don't see anywhere where this stuff's mentioned; it's just critical, there's no balance to it”.

Add to that the fact that no players were selected in the lucrative 2010 Indian Premier League despite Pakistan being crowned World Twenty20 champions, corruption remains endemic in Pakistani politics, and it becomes clearer why these allegations still surface.

"There is a different culture. Certainly (Pakistan's) politicians set a very poor example for the rest of their nation with the way they run the country, there's no doubt about that”, says Lawson.

It’s certainly not the first time Pakistan’s cricket players have come under the spotlight after Salim Malik received a life ban for offering players money to swing a match in 1994.

Given the financial, political, cultural and criminal pressures facing its players, one senses it won’t be the last, regardless of the ICC’s impending decision.