Butt and Asif found guilty of corruption

[Ludwig]

Is this the end for cricket as we know it and does professional sport have any future while there is sponsorship by gambling organisations and there is so much riding on sport results?

 

[vernon]

No.
Yes.
Next.

 

[steve52]

guilty of coruption? just the way things are done, an example being a lot of the menbes of my countrys government? lead by example

 

[ASC1951]

I don't think it has anything to do with sponsorship by gambling organisations. Sport has been linked to betting for as long as we have records i.e. about 4000 years. Most of the current corruption is spot fixing, because it is much easier to carry out, so there may be an argument for stopping spot betting - although AFAIK these bets are generally with bookies in unregulated jurisdictions.

It's certainly a serious issue, Lugwig. Pierluigi Collina was saying recently on the telly that if you cannot be sure that everything you see is genuine, there is no point watching sport.

 

[swee'pea99]

I don't think it has anything to do with sponsorship by gambling organisations. Sport has been linked to betting for as long as we have records i.e. about 4000 years. Most of the current corruption is spot fixing, because it is much easier to carry out, so there may be an argument for stopping spot betting - although AFAIK these bets are generally with bookies in unregulated jurisdictions.

It's certainly a serious issue, Lugwig. Pierluigi Collina was saying recently on the telly that if you cannot be sure that everything you see is genuine, there is no point watching sport.

I'm a bit sceptical about just how serious an issue it really is. As you say, gambling - and therefore fixing - has been going on for 4000 years. Hasn't stopped sport being mostly straight, and enjoyable as a spectacle. I don't know who Pierluigi Collina is but I can't help thinking he's just plain wrong. You can't ever be 100% sure - how could you? Does that mean there's no point? Hardly. I guess there must be some kind of fixing tipping point, where a sport gets so crooked it's robbed of any validity...but we're surely a long way short of that just yet.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

Retired football referee, generally reckoned to be one of the best ever.

Sport has always had problems with match fixing, in the early sixties three footballers were jailed and banned for life after a Sunday People expose. Snooker has had more than it's fair share of problems, boxing is notorious for rigged matches and a fair bit of professional cycling has suffered from rigged races, particularly on the track.

It was fairly well known in pro circles that Reg Harris's famous victory in the 1974 British Sprint Championship at the age of 54 was bought, and there have been persistant rumours that Tom Simpson paid his breakaway companion Rudi Altig for the world road title in 1965.

 

[Moodyman]

Doesn't this thing go in roundabouts? We went through this in the 90s with South African, Indian and Aussie players. Perhaps cricket is only a gentleman's game when played on the village green.

 

[asterix]

Our own sport is getting cleaner (I think!).

 

[User482]

My reaction to this was one of sadness - three players have thrown away glittering careers, for a short-term payout. But let's not forget that the real villains were the ones who arranged the fix, and they remain behind the scenes.

 

[rich p]

My reaction to this was one of sadness - three players have thrown away glittering careers, for a short-term payout. But let's not forget that the real villains were the ones who arranged the fix, and they remain behind the scenes.

I'll be interested to know the pressures and possible intimidation they were under, if the truth ever comes out.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

I'll be interested to know the pressures and possible intimidation they were under, if the truth ever comes out.

A simple case of corruption, I would bet.

 

[User482]

A simple case of corruption, I would bet.

I just point out that the players carried most of the risk, and didn't get much of the reward.

 

[rich p]

A simple case of corruption, I would bet.

I think it's a bit more complex than that but no doubt greed is at the bottom of it. There was the case of the reserve wicket-keeper last year who fled to this country to evade the fixers and bookies who had allegedly threatened his family if he didn't play ball.

They get sucked into the hands of the bookies originally when they are piss poor and it starts with a gift of a watch, a meal in a restaurant etc. I don't think it's the same as if someone like Freddie Flintoff or Hansie Cronje took a bung.