Stani Army

So the Sun newspaper, feeling left out after the revelations by its sister paper the News of the World, needed to get in on the match fixing scandal act by alleging that spot fixing took place during Pakistan’s victory over England in the third ODI at the Oval.

Having received evidence from the newspaper, the ICC have felt it necessary to launch an investigation into allegations that the Pakistan batting innings was scripted, with scoring patterns in two specific overs matching the evidence provided to the ICC before the game. Could something still be going on or could the said scoring patterns have been just a coincidence?

The fact that the ICC felt it necessary to launch an investigation will point to them having some substantial evidence to do so. But there are a number of reasons why these recent ongoings may just be a coincidence.

With the spotlight of the world on the Pakistan side, would anyone in the team have been brave or foolish enough to take instructions from bookies? I would be very surprised if this was the case. Secondly, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir who had been implicated previously are no longer in the side. Salman Butt was even referred to as the ringleader, so with the aforementioned not being there would something untoward still be going on? Also, with the police on Mazhar Majeed’s tail, it would be highly unlikely that he would still have contact with any of the players let alone be setting up fixes. It’s certain any other agent looking from the outside wouldn’t have dared try anything now too.

Which batsmen could have been involved?
If you look at the Pakistani line up, the only player there to have been linked with the original scandal was Kamran Akmal. Yet just looking at his innings on the day would tell you that Akmal wasn’t in long enough to carry out any instructions and neither would his freak dismissal (the ball deflected off the underside of his thigh pad, behind his leg and onto the stumps) have been something purposely planned out.

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You’d be forgiven for thinking that I’m talking about match fixing here but I’m not. This ugly face of cricket is one that is acceptable to fans, players and the game’s law makers alike. In Pakistan’s second ODI against England on Sunday, Andrew Strauss deflected the ball off his glove to the wicket-keeper yet stood his ground and refused to walk after umpire Billy Doctrove unbelievably failed to give it out. Now some may say that this is just part of the game but why does it have to be?

Andrew Strauss sullies the game but it's acceptable

Cricket has always seemed to take the moral high-ground when it comes to sports related problems such racism and hooliganism we see in football, or the continued battle athletics has with drugs use. But there is no other sport where cheating is so blatantly accepted as just a part of the game. We saw the hue and cry over the recent spot fixing allegations against the Pakistan player where law makers, supporters and players of various nations acting as if they had been truly hurt, but where are these voices when something like this happens? I deplore match-fixing, let me make that clear, but I deplore this form of cheating too. Whilst people may argue there is no comparison between the no-balls Amir and Asif bowled, I will simply ask them which act influenced the result of the game? Was it those no-balls or Strauss’ failure to walk when he was on 38 and went on to make a match winning 126. Who is the bigger cheat?

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With the Pakistan bowlers getting showered with compliments left right and center – many from those in the know such as Michael Holding and Paul Allott – the England Captain Paul Collingwood has interestingly expressed comments that would not exactly be in agreement with those expressed by the men above.

Confident or plain stupid?

Collingwood was quoted as saying: “I don’t want to go overboard on ‘these guys are the best thing since sliced bread’ – or Wasim Akram, or this, that and the other”, he went on: “I think they have got a lot of talent. But to say they’re the number one bowling attack in the world I would say was over the mark. They have come up in conditions recently where it’s done a fair bit”.

It’s interesting because it comes at around the same time that the Pakistan captain said in an interview to cricinfo that he believes that in Mohammed Aamer and Mohammed Asif, he has the best pace pair in the world. Add Umar Gul to the mix, who as statistics prove, is the best bowler in Twenty20, the form which is harshest on bowlers, then it’s not such a bad pace attack.

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