New Zealand betting racket busted; next step very important

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The fixing scandal which is currently ripping world cricket apart after the confession of ex-Kiwi batsmen Lou Vincent, is something not unknown to the cricketing world. The game in the last few years has seen many a player confess to being involved in fixing. Be it Salman Butt, Mohammed Amir and Mohammed Asif in a test in England or Sreesanth and co in the IPL last season. The sheer frequency at which such incidents have come to life should be a concern to everyone involved with the game of cricket.

In his confession, Vincent has named a player “X” to be the main leader of this racket. Chris Cairns is being looked at by many media personalities as the main man behind the betting fiasco, but the big New Zealander has squashed all claims regarding these allegations. The period we are looking at, is during the ICL cricket tournament of 2008. The Kiwi batsmen claims that saying no to this cricket superstar was not possible and player “X” owes him plenty of money.

Vincent has also claimed to give insights on how he went about to disrupt games. After being set at the crease, the Kiwi batsmen would give away his wicket very cheaply. By changing his bat or by changing the colour of the grip on his handle. The matches thought to be in question are Chandigarh Lions vs Hyderabad Heroes and ICL World XI v ICL India XI in 2008. In the second game, he was stumped after scoring 28 at just over a run a ball.

Besides spot-fixing, where only a single individual is a part of, he is also being examined for match-fixing in the UK where an entire team could be among those being investigated. Vincent has turned out for about four counties. He is also being questioned for a game involving Kent and Sussex. The instruction given to him by his betting employers was simple, underperform and damper Sussex’s chances of registering an out and out win. The game was telecasted across the UK and India, meaning that plenty of money could have been laundered to and fro. This came about in the year 2011. In the intermediate, he could have been involved in spot/match-fixing for about 4 odd years.

But, here comes the biggest and most shocking confession yet. It seems that Vincent has claimed that during the ICC World T20 in 2009 in England, an Englishmen was involved in betting and had stayed in the same hotel which housed many teams.

Whatever happens now, it remains to see if the ACSU reveal the real identity of this so called player “X”. By doing so, it could open up a huge web of lies. The need of the hour for the cricketing fraternity is to try and eradicate such incidents which has tarnished the gentleman’s games in the recent past. Starting at the very bottom of cricket leagues i.e the youth and club level is the only way we can teach our future stars to stay away from such things.