5 match-fixing scandals that rocked the cricketing world

The conviction that cricket is a gentleman’s game has gone for a toss by the events of the recent past. It turns out that men in cricket are more interested to meet out their corporeal needs rather than being models who inspire gentlemanly manners, as is expected from them. The criterion of monetary prospects perhaps outgrows even the patriotic impulse of playing for one’s country, which has been evident in the controversy surrounding the new-born issue of club vs country in cricket. If that is not enough, schemes to defraud one’s own country just for petty gains into one’s pocket have emerged, spoiling the reputation of the game.

Since cricket came into existence, the game has gone through a lot of evolution, during which several ugly incidents have come to the fore which have left a bad taste in fans. The worst such demon which has consistently threatened to spoil the spirit of the game is match/spot fixing. With the current scandal gripping Pakistani cricket that threatens to become the next biggest scandal in sporting history, here is presenting the top 5 defrauding schemes that have rocked the game.

Captain Hansie Cronje (South Africa)

He was one of the finest batsmen to have ever represented South Africa, yet the greed for money got the better of him. A player who was a class apart during his heydays, Cronje’s great image was drawn into the sewers when he was charged by the Indian Police, on 7 April 2000, who stated that the South African captain had made contacts with bookmakers and was involved in match-fixing.

Cricket South Africa, then known as UCBSA (United Cricket Board of South Africa) denied it and so did Cronje, stating that the ‘allegations were baseless’. Later on though, Cronje’s admission that he was a ‘little dishonest’ to Ali Bacher, who was the administrator at UCBSA, set the wheels in motion and truth after truth tumbled out. There came the acceptance of taking a bribe of $10,000-$15,000 from a London based bookmaker for ‘forecasting results’, then came forward Herschelle Gibbs with the admission that Cronje had ‘paid him to under-perform’ in a match at Nagpur.

Later it was revealed that the rabbit-hole went deeper as it came to the limelight that Henry Williams was made part of the group too and was told to concede more than 50 runs in the same Nagpur match. As if that was not all, it emerged that Mohammed Azharuddin had approached Cronje through bookmaker Mukesh Gupta to persuade him to let South Africa lose wickets and thus the match on the final day of a test match.

Cronje said, “I had received money for doing nothing” on letting South Africa lose on the last day as he was already out before the final day. It was the end of the road for a man who was one of South Africa’s best batsman. He succumbed to the vices of human greed and thus lost his cricketing career, having been banned for life. Tragically, two years later, Cronje died in a plane crash, bringing an end the saga which to this day remains the most distasteful fixing scandal in cricketing history.

Mohammed Azharuddin and others (India)

The last decade was one when nations lost great batsmen to the sin of match-fixing. Mohammed Azharruddin, then captain of the Indian team, was a highly respected figure in the game, a brilliant batsman, athletic fielder and an inspirational leader who was feared by oppositions and loved by the fans. Unfortunately, he too turned out to be a colossus who fell from grace by being part of the scandal.

Azharuddin’s involvement in the match-fixing scandal came to the limelight when the rabbit-hole went deeper in the Cronje case. When the South African captain accused Azharuddin of bringing bookmakers to him, disaster struck. The Central Bureau of Investigation of India soon took up the matter, and though Azharuddin denied the charges at first, he later acknowledged fixing three ODI matches with help from batsman Ajay Jadeja.

The BCCI banned Azharuddin for life and another glorious career came to an end due to the menace of match-fixing. Jadeja was handed a 5 year ban which was ultimately over-turned by the court, but nevertheless his international days were over.

Mark Waugh and Shane Warne (Australia)

Too scared of betting in cricket actively? Try the easier way out, passively provide info on matches. That is exactly what the two smart stalwarts from Australia thought they could do to earn more money without anybody getting a wind of their antics. The idea was that their on-field performances will not be hurt, but they would still be able to make that extra buck. It didn’t work out exactly that way though.

In 1998, luck ran out for Mark Waugh and Shane Warne and a link with an Indian bookmaker was firmly established. Giving pitch and weather information was apparently more important than the pride of playing for the country for the Aussie duo, who were given a firm warning and fined after being asked to amend their ways, or else face bans from international cricket.

Marlon Samuels (West Indies)

The Indian police has had quite a bit of share when it comes to the credit of exposing cricketers involved in betting and fixing. In 2008, West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels was accused by Indian police of providing an Indian bookie with tactical information on a match.

The bad luck for Samuels was that the bookie was blacklisted and the police managed to record an entire conversation between the Jamaican and the bookie. Luckily for Samuels though, the information wasn’t enough to prove that he had taken money for it, but nonetheless, the offence amounted to betting.The ICC banned him from playing for two years, but Samuel still believes that he is innocent and that he has been unfairly judged.

The Pakistani trio

Drama, suspense and action. Pakistani cricket has always had a mix of Bollywood masala spruced in it. The latest one involves Mohammed Asif, Mohammed Amir and captain Salman Butt and as trails are currently underway in London, it threatens to pull Pakistan cricket further into the abyss of destruction.

The now defunct ‘News of the World’ exposed the scandal; that several Pakistani players had given up the pride of their motherland for money. Mohammed Amir, Salman Butt and Mohammed Asif were alleged to have accepted bribes to purposely under-perform in the 4th test at Lord’s against England. It turned out that the bookmaker involved in the scandal, Mazhar Majeed, had Asif and Amir deliberately bowl no-balls at specific intervals during the match, thus ‘spot-fixing’ the match.

The operation was brought to light via a sting operation carried out by a ‘News of the World’ reporter who masqueraded as a businessman interested in fixing the match and thus caught Majeed on tape describing how he was going to rig the proceedings of the game. Amir, Asif and Butt were all given bans when the scandal came to light and are now facing trials in England.

The magnitude of the scandal was so huge that wicket-keeper Zulqarnain Haider fled Pakistan in the fear that he may be assaulted by men, whose offer to deliberately under-perform he refused, and went on to seek asylum in the UK, explaining how deep the fixing scandal has grown in cricket.

As the trials continue in London, more names have been thrown into the hat as Majeed has claimed that fixing “has been going on for centuries” and has alleged that Pakistani greats Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and several Australians have been involved in corrupting matches before. All of this leaves a bad taste amongst fans in an era when cricket is already fighting to stay up against issues such as overdose and DRS.

Edited by Zico