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Source: ONE Sport
What's sadder - the Pakistanis being caught (again) corrupting the integrity of international cricket matches, or the fact that (deep down) you weren't the slightest bit surprised?
There isn't a cricket fan alive who can honestly say they're shell-shocked at news of either the match-fixing allegations, or the nation now under investigation for continuing to perpetrate them. Suspicions about rigged results have dogged this team for decades.
Senior Black Caps now publicly question the validity of 1-day and test match scores from series between us dating as far back as the early 1990's.
And remember too it was only last January in Sydney when fingers were seriously pointed at (Pakistani) wicket-keeper Akmal spooning 4 easy catches against Ozzie as the home side recovered from 8-down/10 runs ahead, to eventually post a (very gettable) match-winning target of 150-odd. With almost 2 full days play left in the test, and after having already hit 300 in their 1st knock, Pakistan incredulously lost 9 for 89 on a benign pitch to hand victory to Ponting's men by a startling 36 runs.
The result was dodgy enough for even (departing) ICC Anti-Corruption chief Lord Condon to admit, in May, that he had "grave concerns" about the "players' motivation for under-performing". Coincidentally the same name's being mentioned then, just happen to include 3 blokes also busted at Lord's by Sunday's "News of the World" sting - Butt, Amir & Asif.
All scandal aside, perhaps equally as damaging for (the sport of) cricket and its governing body though, is that it took a "Red-Top" tabloid to produce the exact results that the ICC's ACU (Anti-Corruption Unit) has forever tried to achieve, but seems increasingly incapable of ever being able to do so.
And, in the end, how hard was it? The whole premise of 2 journos turning up with a suitcase of cash pretending to be from some "Far East Gambling Syndicate" sounds like some re-worked Monty Python skit - and would've been dismissed as such if only it hadn't so brilliantly and obviously worked!
So where to from here?
If the distinguished and well-respected figure of JR Reid is calling for Pakistan to be thrown out of international cricket, then I'm with him. Unfortunately, though, the chances of that actually happening are about the same as Hanise Cronje captaining the Proteas at next year's 1-day WC.
ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat is talking tough promising a "zero tolerance approach to corruption in cricket". Translated, I guess that means he'll be 1st bloke down the newsagents again this Sunday...
