Crio’s Q: Cricket Corruption

Is the conviction and jailing of the Pakistani cricketers a positive or a negative?

Is it a confident statement of intent or confirmation of rampant corruption?

There’s been months of Moody scuttlebutt on the grapevine, for example, with the disclaimer that “they can’t rub him out because it would cripple the Industry.”

How’s a bloke meant to clear himself with that logic?

Cycling has tried to be ruthless, testing aggressively, most notably during Le Tour. The result? Mixed. Many say it just shows how embedded drugs are in the sport whilst the controlling body claims that it shows their determination to enforce rules without fear or favour.

So where do we, as consumers, stand? Are we reassured by the disclosures, or simply further convinced that vice has gripped sporting endeavours?

 

Comments

  1. Sorry to keep harping about it but tanking is match fixing, so it does go further. There will of course be no comment made but even though it is another country there has been a precident set, and it is English Law. I am sure there would be a few nervous folk about.

    “Are you feeling lucky, punk?”

  2. Crio,

    I preface my comments by saying I am a cricket-lover and avowed match-fix hater.

    What iI have found most distasteful about the jailing of the three Pakistani cricketers
    is the gleefulness with which the verdicts have been reported and received locally.

    The sense of vengence in the reactions (e.g. “they got their just desserts!”) has been
    slightly over the top, in my view. I am sure there are far worse crimes which have
    resulted in more lenient sentences in the UK (and elsewhere).

    Even further, what if it were three Australian cricketers on trial? Would the support
    for the convictions be as vociferous? I hardly think so. For me, there is a racist undercurrent
    which I find disturbing. Remember the reaction to Lillee and Marsh betting against their own
    team? t was all a bit of a laugh, wasn’t it? a bit of harmless fun!

    I know I am drawing a long bow there. But the smug satisfaction which some commentators
    have derived from the convictions, and their belief that now everything will be alright, is
    troubling to say the least.

  3. Agree Smokie. It’s a G-A-M-E. Why are people going to jail? Reckon anyone foolish enough to bet their hard earned can’t complain about being duped. A complete and utter waste of court time.
    Similar racist undertones to the prevailing assumption that Aussie swimmers, cyclists, athletes etc etc etc don’t cheat, take performance enhancing drugs………

  4. If you are shooting the messenger there Belly that’s ok. The various arms of media love to gloat but that doesn’t mean that there should not have been gaol sentences in the first place just because some people are over zealous in the post trial reporting.

    I agree that it is only a game but it has been made into something else by the greedies who want to saturate exposure for the bucks. Bring back the true meaning of sport.

    To link the gaol sentences for some to racism would be errant. Racism is often being selectively used as a contemporary defence against wrong doing but it should work both ways. Sing vs Symmonds illustrated that. The sanction against Sing should have been much greater under the current ettiquette but it was about power in a caste system state and not fair play.

  5. Racism! Fair go boys. The blokes who did the wrong thing were from Pakistan. They should have the book thrown at them. End of story. Couldn’t care if they’re red, white or blue. Let’s not be apologists for corrupt players.

    yes it might only be a game, but its played with huge money at stake, with sponsor’s money in the tin and with punters’ money at the gate. All that needs to be respected.

    If Aussie blokes get caught doing the same thing, throw the book at them too.

  6. pamela sherpa says

    Emotions are always skewed when it comes to sport . It’s only a game ? It was only a game a long time ago. Corruption is corruption whether it’s business, sport or leisure. Why should professional sportsmen be treated more lightly than any other law breakers? Throw the book at them and make a concerted effort to catch anyone else involved-no matter what country they’re from.

  7. Peter Flynn says

    Criminal offences have been committed and the offenders have been found guilty.

    These offences incur prison sentences.

    Have I missed something?

  8. I think my original comments have misinterpreted.

    I have no problem whatsoever with the guilty verdicts, and subsequent penalties.
    Yes, crimes were committed and the perpetrators were punished.
    Any attempt at match-fixing and/or cheating in sport must be stamped out and
    punished. Otherwise, what will we have left? WWF in different guises.

    My comments were more about the reaction to those verdicts.

  9. Awareness of cultural values and norms does not make one racist. Corruption is a way of life in the sub-continent. Is it acceptable? Not by our standards, and so there is a culture clash. Jailing them is a punishment designed to change behaviours but changing behaviours requires a change in the underlying values, attitudes, beliefs and norms. How does the ICA propose to change the values of entire nations, when organisations the size of AFL football clubs are unable to successfully do so?

    This is a much bigger, and much more complicated issue which cannot be dissected in a few sentences so it’s far easier to dismiss it with westernised motherhood statements that give us cognitive closure.

    One positive from all this however is that ut gives SportsBet a new category for betting. They can lay odds on whether or not a match is fixed.

  10. You raise an interesting issue Pete. I have successfuly studied anthropology at tertiary level so I am coming from an objective perspective.

    Without predudice I would argue that the pendulum regarding motherhood statements has swung. If the Brits were to make a comment on the quaintness of X country’s cultural values it is openly called patronising and racist but if X country comments on the Poms it is because they deserve it, it is quite acceptable and if you don’t like it we will use your laws (which by the way we don’t allow our good folk to enjoy) to sort you out.

    With a multicultural Australia and the tollerance it would require to enjoy success should those from the corrupt societies, that you have generically identified, chose to move here expect that their cultural norms would be immediatly accepted?

    I would argue that failure to embrace some of the cultural norms that people bring here is far from being racist, and further open indication that they are unlikely to be accepted is far from being a motherhood statement.

    Perhaps the way to deal with the corruption in sport issue in an appropriate manner is to have seperate competitions. One for those who believe it is their birth right to cheat and another for those who don’t. In that senario there is no patronising colonial standover approach.

    Let the emancipation begin. We won’t tell you what to do but don’t tell us. I wonder how many of those Australian sports people addicted to cheating will scurry off to a totalitarian state inorder to gain cultural freedom.

  11. Awareness of cultural values and norms should be a global goal. Making statements based on that awareness does not make one racist. It is all about context.

    Corruption is a way of life in the sub-continent. Is it acceptable? Not by the standards of highly developed nations, and so there is a culture clash. Jailing the cricketers is a punishment designed to change behaviours to those we deem acceptable, but changing behaviours requires a change in the underlying values, attitudes, beliefs and norms of those who participate in the unwanted behaviours. Assuming western values are the correct ones in this situation, how does the ICA propose to change the values of entire nations, when organisations (say the size of AFL football clubs) are unable to change their own cultures? Sending cricketers to jail is not going to do it.

    Some may say that the ICA does not need to change the values and attitudes of the countries those cricketers come from; only the cricketers. But as some very wise man once said, “You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t….”

    This is a much bigger, and much more complicated issue which cannot be dissected or solved in a few sentences so it’s far easier to dismiss it with westernised motherhood statements that bring about cognitive closure.

    One positive from all this however is that it gives SportsBet a new category for betting. They can lay odds on whether or not a match is fixed.

  12. Sorry about the double post. Internet problems; did not realise the firs tpost got through, and tidied up my response in the meantime.

    With respect to tolerance, it is a challenge. We are giving freedoms to some social groups who would not return the same favour if they were in power. The Netherlands is moving to mitigate that very risk. Are they being racist, or realistic?

    @Phanto – we Geelong types are dominating a thread again. Are we still on topic? Lossely related to your second last paragraph, I’ve jokingly said to people for a while now that there should be two Olympics. One for the drug cheats, and one for the unassisted. Something about mutated human beings running 5 second 100s gets me kind of excited.

  13. That may well be the way we have to go.

    But of course no matter what happens it will be a case of some one is being discriminated against.

    Hang on a minute I might take the AFL in court. They discriminated against me in the last draft simply because I was too old and had no ability.

  14. Phanto – you make an interesting point about differing tolerance levels in different societies. Corruption is corruption is corruption. Racism comes nowhere near it.

    In relation to our own ‘tolerant’ society, I couldn’t help noticing in the whole Qantas dispute (leaving aside the rights and wrongs of it) was the ease with which Alan Joyce’s Irish heritage was attacked. Its apparently OK to describe a bloke from Ireland as a ‘little fu**ing Irish peasant’ or ‘a potato eating Irish terrorist’.

    Yours – Damian Patrick Francis O’Donnell

  15. lol @Dips

    A term I find interesting is “reverse racism.” I’ve heard it used a few times and it is apparently applies when a Chinese electrical supplier charges an Aussie more for a TV than he does a person of Chinese descent.

    More generically, I assume “reverse racism” is when a member of a minority racial group treats a person from a majority racial group unfairly based on that racial difference.

    I would’ve thought that’s just racism. In fact, the term “reverse racism” is probably racist in itself because it is highlights that the inappropriate behaviour was enacted by someone from a minority race.

    It’s a real problem that there are labels for everything. The purpose of labels is to create clarification by differentiating things to a lower degree. In some circumstances though, differentiation can be an antecedent to discriminatory behaviour.

    One thing that annoys me is that the anti-discrimination movement has been hijacked by the biggest lobby groups in that movement and as a result, we have a focus on certain types of discrimination.

    Suppressing racist, sexist or whatever comments is different to eliminating racism, sexism, etc.

    Discrimination is an attitude, and IMO, the attitude of discrimination in general needs to be addressed.

    It’s time chicken legged, big nosed, premature ejaculators had representation in this fight.

  16. Damian Patrick Francis O, I like the Joyce boy. I didn’t even think that. He is a real tough nut. Do you think there is any chance of him playing for the other side in the 2013 international rules.

    We need to sit for a while over a few Harp Largers. I had relatives killed at Culloden Field and no one knows racism like a Tasmanian.

  17. Phanto – happy to discuss anything over a few Harp Lagers. We could also discuss the origins of the Clancy Brothers classic song “O’Donnell Abu”. Plenty of family Irish tales of woe to go through. After the lagers we could break out the Tullamore.

Leave a Comment

*