It's sad that at a time when cricket is struggling to stay afloat, its representatives (read the cricketers) are indulging in activities that not only besmirch the 'Gentleman's Game', but also threaten to drag it into the cesspool of extinction. The recent disclosures about the incidents of 'spot-fixing' are threatening to drag the game back into the dark ages. The ever-expanding broadcast of the game also brought along with it the evil of match-fixing. Fans all over the world were shocked to see an ashen-faced Hansie Cronje confessing to match-fixing about a decade ago. Given his record as the South African captain and as an ambassador of South African cricket in general, this was an earth shattering revelation to say the least. The question on everybody's mind at that time was 'Who else?' In what turned out to be the most turbulent period in our beloved game's history - along with the apartheid period and certainly graver than the bodyline series - the bottom suddenly seemed to fall open. As the ICC - aided by the Scotland Yard - cracked down on the match-fixing racket, many notable names came to light. Bans were handed out like candies during Halloween and the matter came to rest.
However, when the Butt-Asif-Aamir incident came to light, some serious questions, which should have been answered much earlier, reared their ugly heads. The biggest of them was: Was the ICC's Anti-Corruption Unit really successful in weeding out match-fixing from the game? As the situation stands right now, the answer seems to be a clear NO. One could argue that the cricketers themselves, as representatives of the game and of their countries, should be responsible for their actions. But then if we lived in such an ideal world, then the vocation of a Policeman would not exist. But yet it does, because however educated and sensible a man may be, there are times when he inevitably falls victim to unforeseen circumstances; or just the darker side of his nature. Among the cricketers banned in that incident, most have had their bans overturned, a few of them have served their bans - as it was for a limited period of time, and a very few percentage of the players are actually serving the ban. In fact, I am having a lot of difficulty coming up with a name other then Mohammed Azharuddin; who, by the way, has already appealed in the Indian courts. In between these two events, there have been a few incidences where we have seen evidence that match-fixing still exists at the highest level of the game, the Marlon Samuels incident being an example.
So the biggest question is, how to minimize match-fixing in cricket. The reason I say 'minimize' and not 'eradicate' is because cricket has become so big a business in Asia, that uprooting match-fixing out of cricket has become a next-to-impossible task, one which cannot be accomplished without total dedication and commitment not only from the governing body, but also from the players. But then young players coming from poor backgrounds can prove to be easy victims to bookmakers. The brash and devil-may-care attitude of youth fails to see the consequences of their actions. Right now, the only way to try and stop this malpractice is to discourage the players from even considering the offers that may come their way from the bookmakers, because it seems that any efforts to catch the real culprits do not seem to be bearing fruition. And the only way to do that is to set firm examples. Handing out life bans may sound harsh, and I can already see most people unsheathing their everyone-deserves-a-second-chance swords, but then there just doesn't seem to be any other way to deal with this menace. Atleast not one that seems to be openly visible. It's true that a wise man always learns from his mistakes, but a man with some common sense learns from others' mistake too. It's time that ICC learned from it's mistake put a stop to this disease that has our beautiful game in a 'fix'.
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