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Fixing reactions
It’s been a pretty eventful week in cricket and there have been a lot of very good articles written, with not all of which I entirely agree. I’ve shared a lot of them on my Twitter feed, but I wanted to share them here as well. They are in no particular order:
A cleansing process Andrew Miller’s excellent piece on Cricinfo.
Here at last is the moment at which cheating for monetary gain stops being an in-joke, as acted out by jaded professionals with too many miles on the clock and too few years in which to capitalise on their athletic prime.
Why the spot-fixing scandal shouldn’t shake our faith in cricket Lizzy Ammon in the Mirror wrote a lovely article about why Sangakkara’s Spirit of Cricket speech at the MCC last summer should be remembered in the wake of the spot-fixing verdict.
Cricket must fight to regain its reputation, it’s still a game with a great deal of integrity and even more amount of beauty populated mostly with talented, polite, passionate, respectful players and officials – we really do have to try and remember that.
Does our society breed corrupt sportsmen? Harsha Bhogle writes on Cricinfo about the effect of culture on corruption in sport. Though I disagree with his statement that similar crimes by politicians would not be reported. The MPs expenses scandal has shown otherwise. ‘But sportsmen come from the same society as everyone else. Among sportsmen are the noble, the diligent and the caring, as there are the callous, the cheats and the criminals.’
The loss of innocence The BBC’s Adam Mountford has a much more pessimistic look at the proceedings which, I confess, is closer to my mood.
For me it is this loss of innocence which is one of the saddest aspects of this whole story. What I love about sport is the drama and the unpredictability. When I turn up at a cricket match I love the feeling that anything can happen that day.
Match-fixing: Where it all began Andy Zaltzman has his usual cleverly amusing take on the origins of match-fixing.
The best place to start might be with this game: USA v Canada in 1844, the first-ever international cricket match. It was a suspiciously low-scoring game, in which no batsman scored more than 14, and the USA, cruising to victory at 25 for 0 in pursuit of 82 to win in the fourth innings, lost all 10 wickets for 33.
A strong deterrent After the guilty verdict, but before the sentences were handed down, Nasser Hussain blogged about why this sent a clear message to potential fixers. I’m not sure jail time does this more than a lengthy ban, but I agree with the sentiment.
If the reward for fixing outweighs the risk of being caught, then there will always be those willing to chance their arm – particularly if they are not getting paid much by their cricket board.
As a final note: Whilst Kumar Sangakkara’s moving speech at Lord’s is an excellent reminder of what is great about cricket, The Duckworth Lewis Method‘s lone album has a similar effect. I’ve had it on a loop for most of the last few days.
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Pakistani cricket
At stumps on the first day of the Pakistan v Sri Lanka Test Sri Lanka are 245-2. It’s not been a good day for Pakistan, but the scoreline is not the worst of their problems. The ICC have been given access to all the evidence collected by the CPS with regard to the spot-fixing case and are now looking into Pakistan’s matches before the scandal broke. It’s impossible to know what they will find, of course. It may be that all of the allegations are groundless. Any cricket fan will be desperately hoping that is the case, but it does beg the question of what to do if it’s not.
If it transpires that most or all of Pakistan’s matches are suspect and that there is a culture of fixing in the Pakistan side, as have been alleged, what could be done? It would be a problem far too deep to simply eradicate with bans, or the threats thereof. It would not be feasible to throw Pakistan out of cricket until they get their house in order, but on the other hand how could anyone watch them play with any confidence? The one saving grace is that most of the current side are different from the one that toured England, but if the corruption is set into the administration that would count for little in the long run.
Of all the things that have come out in the trial (including the desperately sad testimony by Amir about his pride of playing for Pakistan) this is, for me, the saddest. There does not seem to be any good outcome that is reasonably likely. The best that could happen is that the ICC finds no evidence of further corruption. It doesn’t look likely, but for now we have to keep our fingers crossed.
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It’s a fair cop
The sentences in the spot-fixing trial were handed down today. Majeed is to be imprisoned for two years and eight months, Butt for two years and six months, Asif for one year and Amir for six months. Half of the sentences are suspended in each case.
I’ve stated earlier that I didn’t want to see long prison sentences, but I think these are fair. I’d have rather liked to see Amir avoid any jail time at all, though. The judge did make it clear that he considered the effect of the bans already handed down, but they were complicit in fraud. The impression I got from reading the judge’s statement was that the sentences were mainly for the fact that they did defraud bettors, and less for the disrepute brought onto cricket.
This is, I think, the correct course of action. It is not right that players be punished in a criminal court for cheating alone, that is a job for the governing body of the sport. Since the cheating in this case amounts to theft, however, it is reasonable that they be prosecuted for such. Since the prosecution focused on the no-balls and the judge could not determine the extent of the money that was defrauded, these seem like fair sentences. Going into the trial, I had hoped for less, but the judge laid out his reasons quite clearly and took the pleas and earlier bans into account. One can’t say fairer than that, and I doubt the players themselves could have too many complaints.
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1-0 the Windies
The West Indies beat Bangladesh this morning by 229 runs to win the series 1-0. It very easily could have been a 1-1 draw, had it not been for the poor outfield drainage in the first Test, though with Bangladesh it cannot be assumed that they would have converted a strong position into a victory. The West Indies continue to look rather mercurial, but generally improving somewhat. Last spring they beat Pakistan in a Test match and did not embarrass themselves against an admittedly reduced Indian side. Then they came to Bangladesh and played very poorly in the first Test. They probably ought to have lost, but only three days of play were possible. Coming on the heels of being bowled out for 61 in ODI, it looked pretty grim for the second Test, but they came back well. They twice bowled Bangladesh out for under 300, and the Bangladeshis strength is their batting. Their captain, Mushfiqur Rahim, was unimpressed with his side’s collapse on the final day, however.
The West Indies now go across the border for three Tests against an Indian side presumably still reeling from their 0-4 tonking in England. The way the Windies have played against Bangladesh they will be clear second favourites. The way India played against England may cast some doubt on that, but a more rested side at home should see off the Windies comfortably. Two-nil, I’d say.
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ESPN Fail
ESPN bill themselves as ‘the worldwide leader in sports’ and they may well be. I know that they are one of the main cricket channels in India and they own Cricinfo, one of my favourite sites. I’m less enamoured with their American arm; even when they’re not discussing/showing non-sports like poker and Nascar they pay far too much attention to the east coast. (They do show Premier League football though, which is good.)
Tonight, however, was the worst coverage I’ve ever seen. They somehow have decided that after advertising their coverage of the Gold Glove awards they would not show it on any of their four main or two alternate channels until the end of a university American Rules football match. This despite that the main channel was showing the world series of poker and that they have a channel dedicated to university sports that was not showing any live match at all. Their two alternate channels showed just showed a logo. The award show was finally shown, but fifty minutes late. It was a slap in the face to baseball fans and showed that ESPN do not care about the game.
Of course, I understand that some people care about university Yank Rules and that some people like to watch poker on TV (though I find the latter incomprehensible). I don’t think more people wanted to see poker than the Gold Gloves, however, and in any case ESPN prevented someone like MLB Network from showing the awards on time. They could have shown the Yank Rules match on the channel dedicated to university sports. They could have put poker on an alternate channel. They didn’t. If they don’t care enough about the Gold Glove awards to show them when they say they will they should leave it to a network that will.
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Guilty
Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif have both been found guilty of conspiracy to cheat (unanimously) and conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments (by a 10-2 majority). It was also revealed today that Mohammad Amir had pleaded guilty to the charges. Their sentences will be handed down later this week; Butt faces a maximum of seven years in prison.
I am glad to see that they were found guilty; any other verdict would have cast doubt on the ICC’s decision earlier this year. It is also a welcome change from the general dithering that has previously accompanied fixing allegations. I’m not convinced that it is a good idea for the courts to meddle in a case of sport, but in this case it did work out well.
I do hope, however, that the jail sentences are not harsh. I doubt that they will act as a deterrent more than the existing bans would. What I would like is for the ICC to use this to enforce the suspended aspect of the bans, but that does not seem feasible. Hopefully this is the end of the matter and in future we will not have to question every dropped catch. I’m not sure how feasible that is either.
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Happy Hallowe’en!
I thought about maybe doing a Red Rose to celebrate the title, but I haven’t carved a pumpkin in about five years and this was a lot simpler. When the Royals win the AL Central next year I’ll do a Red Rose to compensate.
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2011 Gold Gloves
The shortlists for the 2011 Gold Glove awards were announced today and two Royals made it into the final three for their positions. Alex Gordon and Jeff Francoeur were nominated after each having career years. The rest of the nominees are here.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that Francoeur will win; he’s up against Torii Hunter and Nick Markakis. I actually suspect Markakis will win. Hunter is still a good outfielder, but his best days are behind him and Markakis is pretty well established. Francoeur is also a Royal, which never helps.
Alex Gordon has a better chance. He’s up against Brett Gardner though, who is not a better outfielder but is a Yankee. The other nominee is Sam Fuld of the Rays. In an ideal world neither should present any challenge to Gordon, but Gardner is from a big market and thus tends to have something of an advantage. I think in this case, however, the gap will be too large and Gordon will get the recognition he deserves.
There were a pair of notable snubs from a Kansas City standpoint, however. Alcides Escobar did not even get a nomination for his brilliance at shortstop, whilst somehow JJ Hardy did. Also, Zach Grienke has been overlooked for the nth year running, despite this time being on a division winning team. The awards show will be shown live for the first time on ESPN2 in the US and Canada at 21.00 CDT. I doubt it will be shown overseas though.
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Zimbabwe v New Zealand and Pakistan v Sri Lanka predictions
There are a couple of Tests starting this week: Zimbabwe play New Zealand in Bulawayo tomorrow and Pakistan ‘host’ Sri Lanka in Sharjah on the third.
For Zimbabwe it’s just their third Test since returning to the longer form. They beat Bangladesh to mark their return, but collapsed spectacularly to lose against Pakistan. (Though Sri Lanka have shown that may have had more to do with the Pakistani bowlers than the Zimbabwean batsmen.) Daniel Vettori will play for New Zealand for the first time since the World Cup, having retired from one day cricket. New Zealand have been playing very few Test matches lately, and winning still fewer, but I think they will be too strong for Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe are without one of their best batsmen, Tatenda Taibu, and I think they will struggle against Vettori. The pitch won’t help him much, but he’s probably the best bowler that Zimbabwe will have faced and the only one who can bowl long, tight spells to put the batsmen under pressure. He will play on their patience and I don’t think they will be able to keep their nerve. My prediction: New Zealand to win by seven wickets/225 runs.
Sri Lanka need to beat Pakistan in their final test to draw the series, but I frankly don’t see that happening. Sri Lanka have not looked like taking twenty wickets in the first two matches of the series, or in any of the three matches in England. Their bowling has only been at all penetrative at home on a pitch that favoured the bowlers to the point of insanity. Their best hope is to grind out a draw, which they may well do. Despite being bowled out for under 300 three times out of four, they have shown glimpses of competence at various times. Pakistan have had trouble scoring quickly in both matches, and I think Sri Lanka could hold out for a draw in a similar fashion to the First Test. I think that they will, but it might be a close run thing and I would not be surprised to see Pakistan win. My prediction: Match drawn.
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Blogroll
I’ve added a few new links to the blogroll. They’re all quite good and I encourage anyone who comes here to check them out.
Defensive Indifference 