Just when you thought it was safe to get back onto the cricket field

I awoke on Sunday awash with a dazed feeling (thanks Bokke … see previous post) which, after logging onto a well-known cricket website, was exasperated a thousand fold. News had broken that Pakistan bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer, among other team mates, had been accused of “spot-fixing” by a middle man sourced by the British newspaper News of the World who paid £150 000 for the information.

Following News of the World turning over their evidence to the British police, 35-year-old agent Mazhar Majeed was arrested for (with thanks to the Daily Mail where I copied the rest of this from) “being accused of taking cash to get players to deliberately bowl no-balls in a Test match against England”.

What can one say? The following two links are an appropriate view I believe into what the English are feeling about this mess. Former England captain Nasser Hussain and fellow Daily Mail writer Paul Newman voice there disgust and disenchantment at what has now over-shadowed the performances of Aamer (a cricketing tragedy of epic proportions), Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott (he is still a douche bag) and Stuart Broad.

Nasser Hussain — The picture of one of the no-balls in question says it all.

Paul Newman

Fellow trawling over the web led to the uncovering of this article by the Telegraphs’ Richard Edwards, Martin Beckford and Murray Wardrop. With Scotland Yard having now got their man in Majeed, how deep does the rot go? It makes for extremely depressing reading as a cricket fan. How low can Pakistan go? How long have we been duped?

Richard Edwards, Martin Beckford and Murray Wardrop.

A writer referred to Aamer’s situation earlier as a tragedy due to first of all what he’s alleged to have done and secondly the erasing of possibly a career that could’ve blossomed. If you have been able to see the action between England and Pakistan, you would’ve been mesmerised as I was by the quality of swing bowling produced by Aamer on day one at Lords. Not since Wasim Akram has Pakistan and world cricket as a whole been able to see a bowler on the world stage who epitomises the greatest attributes of swing and fast bowling. The most amazing aspect of Aamer’s performance is that he is only 18. Usually it takes a few seasons for swing exponents, with James Anderson and Dale Steyn being examples, to master the dark arts of swing a cricket ball but Aamer seemed like he didn’t need to wait around.

The reaction from the English was also plain to see with the post-match presentation for the Fourth Test, incidentally Pakistan’s biggest defeat ever in a Test match (did they throw this too?), where Giles Clarke refused to look Aamer in the eye or shake his hand as he handed over the Man of the Series award to the Pakistani bowler. The look of the English team’s faces in the Long Room (the presentation was moved off the field for obvious reasons) also tells a story.

Aamer, now of this moment, is the epitome of what Pakistan cricket is in the professional age: talented, highly skilled, young, vibrant, fragile, vulnerable and now, sadly, corrupt. His rise was quicker than Eminem’s new album on the music charts and perhaps that was the problem. He is reportedly from an impoverished background, so he was always going to be an easy target, especially with the riches of the IPL just across the border.

The Akmal brothers (perhaps that is why Kamran Akmal, the kakkest wicket-keeper in world cricket, was able to keep playing where in normal circumstances he would’ve been sent back to cricketing Siberia), new face Wahib Riaz (who took a fiver on debut the Test before) and Umar Amin are also accused of being corrupt. As Hussain alludes to, this storm could turn into the proverbial shit storm. Asif has already had his problems with the law.

The damage done to Pakistani cricket is immeasurable. Will opposition countries ever trust them to try their best again? In terms of colossal PR fuck-ups, Pakistani cricket is now a dead man walking. The question of guilt has been muddied further by the potential Pakistan has now just left to squander and wither.

The plot is even more intriguing from a South African perspective. The Proteas are meant to face Pakistan later in the year for a Test and One Day series but now what? Will the CSA, who strive to show they are the good guys when it comes to sports administrators in South Africa, want to be associated with what is now a tainted product? This is a very tough call. That decision will be reached in conjunction with the Players’ Association, broadcast sponsors and perhaps even government officials (G-d forbid).

The English can take a lead here, since the initiative now lies in their court. They still have a one-day series to play, and while the ECB has been accused of putting cash before pride and honour, can they really let the show go on? At the moment they say so, but this writer’s impression is that the ODI series will and should be cancelled. Not to do so would be begging the question and only make things worse.

Still, all action taken is now in cue of solving an unsolvable problem. The ghost and legacy of Hansie Cronje, may he rest in peace, is back. That is something we should all be saddened about. John Adams, the American statesman, says it best (with thanks to www.qotd.org): Because power corrupts, society’s demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases. — John Adams, 1735 – 1826