Beating the bookies

Pakistan has a decidedly murky record when it comes to allegations of the fixing of cricket matches some of which have proved to be true and others false. Players have been imprisoned for fixing matches. The bookies that drive the corruption across sport generally in the subcontinent and South Asia (it is not only cricket that is their target) stand to make millions of dollars in moments if their corrupt play is successful and a player or contestant is suborned. If found out entire teams and nations are tainted and it can take years to recover — and some never do. It must be assumed that some matches and games are successfully ‘fixed’ and the crime goes unknown and unpunished, but occasionally the good rises to the surface rather than the bad.

One such event is now revealed in the course of the ongoing five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in the UAE. The captain of the Pakistan team, Sarfraz Ahmed, was approached by a bookie who made a spot-fixing offer. The captain refused and referred the approach to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Anti-Corruption Unit as per the protocols drummed into players in such an event.

The bookie in question is allegedly of Pakistani origin and the offer was made while Sarfraz was out with his family immediately after the first ODI. He has led by example and is to be commended for his prompt actions, but this will not be the last time our cricketers are exposed in this way. It is not possible to expect sportsmen and women to live in hermetically sealed boxes for the duration of their playing careers. Many of the more prominent have large and active fan-bases that like nothing better than to get close to the object of their fandom. Infiltrating a bookie or two into the happy throng is not difficult. We are thankful that Sarfraz did the right thing for himself and for the national game — and let the bookies beware because honesty can prevail.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2017.

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