Cricket meets its match

History of fixing the product of a corrupt society

Scyld Berry August 30, 2010

It is only natural that cricketers - or some of them at least - should reflect the society from which they come. And Pakistan is, and has been almost throughout its existence, riddled with corruption.

England supporters - and westerners in general - may tut-tut and disapprove of Pakistan, from its cricketers who have been implicated in match-fixing over more than two decades to its president, Asif Zardari, who chose to flaunt his wealth while the country he is supposed to rule was flooded. But, uncomfortable truth be told, Britain and the United States have complied with the governments of Pakistan in the basic form of corruption which pervades the country and derails society.

The military takes most of the country's wealth, leaving far too little money to fund civilian society: a euphemism for saying the state does not provide its people with schools and hospitals or any real social care.

In his book Pakistan - Eye of the Storm, the former BBC correspondent Owen Bennett-Jones wrote: "Between 1947 and 1959 up to 73 per cent of Pakistan's total government spending was devoted to defense. The average for the period was 60 per cent." And nothing had changed by the last time England toured Pakistan at the end of 2005. The British High Commission then estimated that Pakistan's military - including the notorious Inter-Services Intelligence - took 70 per cent of government spending for itself. No doubt official disapproval has been expressed, in private, but the aid has continued to pour in from Britain and the US without sufficient strings attached.

Anyone growing up in such a country therefore sees the state doing nothing for its people, feels no loyalty to the state in return, and makes what money he can for himself. And it is very difficult for someone in Pakistan, if not quite impossible, to make a decent living by honest means: what money there is does not go where it should but into official pockets.

My first experience of this was on England's 1977-8 tour of Pakistan. The Raj left behind some lovely hotels, Dean's, Flashman's, Faletti's, and they were all run down, apparently unrenovated since Partition. The money the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation received from government never went into the hotels which it owned.

For cricketers growing up amid corruption, the temptations are increased by Pakistan being the neighbours of India. Indian cricketers are well paid by their board, and lavishly sponsored. Pakistan players have always been poorly paid by their board, and sponsorship has never made good the difference as the country does not have the industry and private-sector economy which India has.

Pakistan's dressing room is unusual. The first language is not English and Muslim prayers are said and Ramadan, as now, observed. It has been hierarchical too. Traditionally the captain has lorded it over his team, like Imran Khan or Inzamam ul-Haq. The junior player has to conform, without allowance for individualism, to keep his place.

Not surprisingly, cricket match-fixing first reared its head in Pakistan. The inquiries by Justice Qayyum, even though the penalties were watered down by Pakistan's government to reduce international embarrassment, and by India's Central Bureau of Investigation, chronicle some of the nefarious activities which spread from 1980.

They were partly driven by human greed as well as the inequality of Pakistan society. But understandable human weakness was at play too. If you were a cricketer who worked part-time for a bank that collapsed, and some of the people whom you had persuaded to open accounts at that bank wanted their money back, and fast, or else your family would suffer: what would most of us do?

As Lord Condon, the first head of the International Cricket Council's Anti Corruption and Security Unit, told us earlier this year in a rare interview: the bad boys know perfectly how to entrap. Down the slippery slope the young cricketer goes, accepting the odd gift, and then money, in return for more and more important information, until he is one of the boys. And he is only following the example of his seniors, if not betters.

Sexual entrapment has been used as well. There is no going back to an honest life if you have taken the money, or if you have been photographed in a compromising position in a Dubai hotel, especially for players from a Muslim country.

And it is not like the good old days of the 1820s when Lord's was not so much the home of cricket as of gambling, and dodgy fellows/lovable rogues propositioned players as they went in and out of the pavilion.

The trail leads from corrupt cricketers through middlemen back to the biggest mafia bosses in south Asia, to men who have cut their teeth - and more than a few throats - in the Bollywood film industry. To men who are No.1 on Wanted Lists. In them cricket has met its match.


Source : The Daily Telegraph, London

What is true above of Pakistan populace in general is surely applicable to Indian politicians as well? - cr

For cricketers growing up amid corruption, the temptations are increased by Pakistan being the neighbours of India. Indian cricketers are well paid by their board, and lavishly sponsored. Pakistan players have always been poorly paid by their board, and sponsorship has never made good the difference as the country does not have the industry and private-sector economy which India has.

Pakistan's dressing room is unusual. The first language is not English and Muslim prayers are said and Ramadan, as now, observed. It has been hierarchical too. Traditionally the captain has lorded it over his team, like Imran Khan or Inzamam ul-Haq. The junior player has to conform, without allowance for individualism, to keep his place.

Not surprisingly, cricket match-fixing first reared its head in Pakistan. The inquiries by Justice Qayyum, even though the penalties were watered down by Pakistan's government to reduce international embarrassment, and by India's Central Bureau of Investigation, chronicle some of the nefarious activities which spread from 1980.

They were partly driven by human greed as well as the inequality of Pakistan society. But understandable human weakness was at play too. If you were a cricketer who worked part-time for a bank that collapsed, and some of the people whom you had persuaded to open accounts at that bank wanted their money back, and fast, or else your family would suffer: what would most of us do?

As Lord Condon, the first head of the International Cricket Council's Anti Corruption and Security Unit, told us earlier this year in a rare interview: the bad boys know perfectly how to entrap. Down the slippery slope the young cricketer goes, accepting the odd gift, and then money, in return for more and more important information, until he is one of the boys. And he is only following the example of his seniors, if not betters.

Sexual entrapment has been used as well. There is no going back to an honest life if you have taken the money, or if you have been photographed in a compromising position in a Dubai hotel. Especially for players from a Muslim country.

And it is not like the good old days of the 1820s when Lord's was not so much the home of cricket as of gambling, and dodgy fellows/lovable rogues propositioned players as they went in and out of the pavilion.

The trail leads from corrupt cricketers through middlemen back to the biggest mafia bosses in south Asia, to men who have cut their teeth - and more than a few throats - in the Bollywood film industry. To men who are No.1 on Wanted Lists. In them cricket has met its match.

The Daily Telegraph, London