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Are you sure you want to associate your name with the World sport of cricket? From today's local paper:
Graft rocks cricket world
Crime compromises beloved British game
BY ELLIOTT ALMOND Mercury News
It sounds like a summer blockbuster: bribes, secret tapes, clandestine meetings and an investigation code named ``Operation Gentlemen.''
Welcome to the chivalrous sport of cricket.
Law enforcement and cricket officials from India to England have offered a compelling tale of how organized crime and illegal bookmaking have compromised the beloved game the English exported to its colonies.
Hundreds of matches allegedly have been fixed in the past decade, sending reverberations all the way to the Bay Area, where expatriates from India, Pakistan and other Commonwealth countries have been abuzz with each new disclosure.
``I felt betrayed,'' said Nisar Chaudhry of Milpitas, chairman of the Bay Area Cricket Alliance. ``Everybody is accusing everybody. It is a mess now.''
International cricket's newly formed Anti Corruption Unit last month outlined a series of events that makes the infamous Black Sox scandal of American baseball pale in comparison. Eight Chicago White Sox players were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.
The scope of the cricket affair would be equivalent to Randy Johnson, Derek Jeter and other baseball stars facing indictments for manipulating the outcome of games.
``My first reaction, was: `How can they do that?' '' said U.S. national team coach Abid Ali, who lives in Tracy. ``Is it possible that you can do such things to bring your nation down?''
It has been especially hurtful for Ali, a computer technician who played for the Indian national team from 1967 to 1976. He played when the game exemplified nobility.
``We played for our country's glory,'' Ali said.
Cricket has a large following locally, where about 700 people play in organized leagues. The game loosely resembles baseball, but with teams of 11 players, runs scored by the hundreds and games lasting up to 10 hours a day. It is known for its civility with all-white uniforms and tea breaks.
Fans from Fremont, Milpitas and other cricket enclaves have been dismayed while watching their heroes implicated by an affair that has tentacles in Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka.
Athletes banned
So far, three stars have been banned for life:
South Africa captain Hansie Cronje last year admitted accepting bribes after New Delhi police taped a cellular phone conversation between him and a bookmaker.
Mohammad Azharuddin, one of India's most successful captains, admitted he had received money from a bookmaker to fix two international matches.
Pakistani captain Salim Malik tried to bribe two Australians in the mid-1990s to ensure his team's victory, according to the Aussies.
``I have spoken to people who have been threatened and others who have alleged a murder and kidnapping linked to cricket corruption,'' wrote Sir Paul Condon, former London Metropolitan Police commissioner.
Condon's Anti Corruption Unit investigators, recruited from New Scotland Yard, uncovered new allegations this spring. In other words, stay tuned.
Although betting, except for certain horse racing, is banned in India, authorities believe $5 million is wagered illegally each day of a live televised cricket match.
Officials say cricket betting started in 1978 with the resumption of international play between political and sporting rivals India and Pakistan. That piqued fan interest and led to a proliferation of one-day matches that made the game even more popular. Traditional cricket can last up to five days but doesn't hold the same fascination for spectators -- though players consider it more prestigious.
Players resent profits
Once betting gained a foothold, the sport became vulnerable to match-fixing because of salary issues. Although well-compensated compared to their national standard, cricketers resent that the sport's organizers are reaping large profits that the players aren't seeing.
Players on the subcontinent and West Indies earn about $3,500 a match, officials said. Players resented the large sums the sport made through cable television and stadium receipts. So, the meaningless one-day matches gave them an incentive to accept bribes without guilt.
``Greed replaced the former values of the game,'' said Majid Khan, former Pakistan Cricket Board chief. ``Cricketers were willing to make a quick buck.''
Said Martin Blake, sports editor of the Australian newspaper Melbourne Age: ``It has changed our view of what cricket really is.''
The scandal could be encapsulated in the dealings of an Indian bookmaker. He admitted to a decade of offering money or paying some of cricket's biggest stars to either under-perform or provide vital betting information.
Bookmakers built relationships with captains and star performers because it took a handful to successfully alter an outcome. They used cellular phones to secure the deals.
Guessing winners isn't the only action of back-alley wagering. Condon received allegations that bets were placed on scenarios such as who would bowl -- akin to a baseball pitcher -- and who would win the opening coin toss. Bookmakers allegedly paid grounds crew to prepare a field for a certain result.
Perhaps the most stunning revelation came when New Delhi police stumbled onto a transaction during a murder investigation. The taped conversation involved the popular South African Cronje and London-based Indian businessman Sanjeev Chawla.
A sample of their conversation the day before South Africa played India in last year:
Chawla: ``OK. So everything is according to plan. They have to score at least 250?''
Cronje: ``Yeah.''
Chawla: ``And if you score 270, it is off?''
Cronje: ``OK. And financially the guys want 25. They want 25 each.''
Chawla: ``All right, OK.''
Cronje: ``So that's 75 for those three and . . . What can you pay me? I do not know how much you pay me.''
Chawla's associate told police that bookmakers paid about $400,000 to fix the series. A South African batsman went on a tear and unwittingly ruined the arrangement.
The scandal exploded across India last year when a former player, Manoj Prabhakar, publicly exposed through an Internet site the extent of the corruption. Wearing secret recording equipment and pinhole cameras, Prabhakar spent a month taping meetings with former teammates and friends. Officials banned him for five years for accepting many bribes but used the tapes in their investigation.
In the wake of the allegations, Indian tax officials last year launched ``Operation Gentlemen.'' Agents raided homes and safety deposit boxes of players and bookmakers. Pakistani military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf and President Mohammad Rafiq Tarar publicly endorsed sanctions against cricket stars in their country.
`It can create riots'
The response illustrates the sport's elevated status in cricket-playing nations.
``It can create riots, it can create wars,'' said Chaudhry, once a Pakistani player.
A match Sunday in England exemplified the emotion that can be generated. England forfeited to Pakistan after more than 200 fans surged onto the field in Leeds, forcing players to run for safety.
With the Anti Corruption Unit calling for major changes, many believe cricket will regain its dignity. Condon has recommended a ban on cellular phones in locker rooms and that security be assigned to the national teams like in many U.S. professional sports. He also called for a stronger international organization.
None of it will end betting, said Kuldip Lal, Agence France-Presse cricket correspondent. ``If a player wants to speak to a bookie he can do it any time of the day or night,'' he said.
Still, it won't stop fans from filling stadiums or ordering pay-per-view matches in the Bay Area. They're more skeptical, but they're still tuning in.
``It will pass because there is so much passion and intensity in it,'' Tracy's Ali said. ``It's in their blood.'' |
