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Gambling and Game Fixing Rocks Pakistani Cricket

Posted on August 30th, 2010

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Cricket, a sport well-loved by peoples of the former British Commonwealth, is now facing a crisis following a discovery of a scandal involving gambling groups, game fixing and possibly players. This discovery was made after a London-based newspaper made accusations of fixing by a number of Pakistani team players who were on the second to the last day of a final test match versus England, which the home team won. But apparently, if the newspaper assertions were to be proven true, the English team would have just won because some Pakistani players deliberately threw the game. Last Saturday evening, London police started questioning the visiting players after News of the World published allegations that Pakistani bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif were given sums of money to bowl no-balls deliberately during the 1st day of the fourth test last Thursday, making England win by an inning and 225 runs.

On Sunday, a meeting has been arranged between the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Ejaz Butt and the country’s team manager Yawar Saeed in order for them to discuss what the next step for the team will be. Saeed still believes though that the team will be allowed to finish the remaining fixtures of two Twenty20 matches and one-day international, five of which still has to be played. Saeed said in an interview that the team is not delighted and the members got sad in the dressing room. He adds, “Allegations are only one thing. They are all serious, whether they are small or big. Let us see what happens.” He adds that the police have already confiscated the cellular phones of the two players, plus that of the captain Salman Butt. Moreover, the visiting players’ hotel rooms have also been searched in accordance to the investigation being conducted with the cooperation of the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit of the International Cricket Council.

The first of the Twenty20 matches is still a week from now, but thousands of tickets have already been sold and a number of tickets are still available as of press time in websites of English county clubs. Andrew Strauss, the captain of the English team commented that the best thing to do is to let things simmer down because as of the moment, it would be easy to react emotionally to the situation. Although the reasons for continuing with the season are still there, he says that the Pakistani team would have to think about what would be the best course of action as the final say may have to be with the Pakistanis. If a player is proven to be involved in game fixing and throwing for gambling purposes, he will face a lifetime ban from any official connection to the sport. The News of the world claims that it had two of their reporters go undercover as font men for a gambling group. They filmed the two with a secret camera as they discussed an exchange of money with a man they identified as Mazhar Majeed, a London-based businessman. Majeed was apparently filmed accepting 150,000 British pounds for a no-balls bowling situation to be assured at particular parts of the match. Majeed has already been arrested by the police earlier, but posted bail on Sunday in exchange for an obligation to appear before the police in the future.

The newspaper claims that all evidence it possesses has been submitted to the policy already. Back in Pakistan, no less than the country’s President, Asif Ali Zaradari, has asked the country’s cricket board for an initial report regarding the events. The country’s prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gillani added that the country is currently in shame over the allegations and he has asked the sports minister for an inquiry. Similar scandals in the sort have started emerging ironically when the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit was launched a decade ago. Recently, the captain of the South African team has been banned for life after he admitted that he did predict results and offer bribes to his co-players in exchange from a bookmarker operating in London. What actually happens with these game fixing scenarios is, a gambling group or bookmakers bribe the less favored team or player to make sure that they will indeed lose. Since the team predicted to win has larger odds, more bettors will bet on them. When the team wins, the winnings will be spread to more people, thus lessening them, which in turn assures the bookmaker stable earnings. On the other hand, if the less-favored team wins, the few bettors that bet on them will get a substantial profit since only a few of them will partake of the winnings, and in turn making the bookmaker lose profits.