Skip to main content

chalk up one for the good guys

News today that the spot-fixing corruption case in London has returned guilty verdicts on the first charges against Pakistan cricket captain Salman Butt and leading pace bowler Mohammed Asif. Butt has been found guilty of accepting money for corruption, and both players found guilty of conspiracy to cheat. (Asif's charge of accepting money for corruption is still to reach a verdict). The third player in the trial, Mohammed Amir, is believed to have pleaded guilty in advance. This is a great step forward in the fight against corruption in all sports, not just cricket. It shows convictions can be secured, but it also shows just how difficult they are to achieve.

Lots of finger-pointing at the ICC and their anti-corruption unit today for their poor performance. After all, it was journalists from the now-defunct News of the World tabloid paper that captured all the evidence and then handed a gift-wrapped file to British police. The ICC are caught between a rock and a hard place here. You cannot have a sport's ruling body sending its own people in undercover to do the dirty work - imagine the cries of bias, hidden agendas, racism and anything else if certain players or countries were targetted. The press and the legal system would have a field day. And therein lies the problem. Without concrete evidence, a legal case against crooked players will never hold water. Unless the crime takes place within the jurisdiction of a country which specifically has strict laws regarding corruption in sport, then the investigation is up shit creek before it even starts. Few countries have such laws - it's only new in the UK.

Consider tennis and the infamous Davydenko match a few years ago now in Sopot, Poland. A player using a Russian telephone (access required to get list of phone calls etc) in a country without significant penalties against sporting/betting fraud with the crime allegedly being against customers of UK betting companies, and potentially ten spectators. It's all hearsay and circumstantial evidence unless there is indisputable evidence. Rarely will a player confess to it unless they know the game is up. The Tennis Integrity Unit has penalised a couple of players this year themselves, but will have to defend themselves in a sporting court as well. It's notable that the two players named were low-ranked and known troublemakers - certainly in the Koellerer case, everyone bar the player himself has said 'good riddance' to him.

So how can sporting authorities gather the evidence they need without crossing the line? Without cooperation from local police and Interpol, it becomes incredibly difficult. Is there a case for sporting authorities to unite and hire a specialist investigation unit, created at arm's length from each sport's rulers?

It's easy to jump to conclusions and think this is the beginning of cleaning up all sporting corruption. But we are a long, long way from that. Are we going to see players avoid touring England because it's the only country with laws capable of catching and penalising match/spot-fixers? And will they conveniently use the tax excuse that discourages the likes of Usain Bolt and Rafael Nadal from competing in all bar the premier events?

The ICC have to find a way to back these convictions up with heavy presence at matches. Is the Indian-controlled ICC prepared to admit that the IPL has probably been tainted as well and have henchmen looking over the players everywhere they go? I very much doubt it...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

It's all gone Pete Tong at Betfair!

The Christmas Hurdle from Leopardstown, a good Grade 2 race during the holiday period. But now it will go into history as the race which brought Betfair down. Over £21m at odds of 29 available on Voler La Vedette in-running - that's a potential liability of over £500m. You might think that's a bit suspicious, something's fishy, especially with the horse starting at a Betfair SP of 2.96. Well, this wasn't a horse being stopped by a jockey either - the bloody horse won! Look at what was matched at 29. Split that in half and multiply by 28 for the actual liability for the layer(s). (Matched amounts always shown as double the backers' stake, never counts the layers' risk). There's no way a Betfair client would have £600m+ in their account. Maybe £20 or even £50m from the massive syndicates who regard(ed) Betfair as safer than any bank, but not £600m. So the error has to be something technical. However, rumour has it, a helpdesk reply (not gospel, natur

Betdaq.... sold...... FOR HOW MUCH???

So as rumoured for a while, Ladbrokes have finally acquired the lemon, sorry, purple-coloured betting exchange, Betdaq. For a mind-boggling €30m as 'initial consideration'. That's an even more ridiculous price than Fernando Torres for £50m, or any English player Liverpool have purchased in recent seasons! As I've written previously there are no logical business reasons for this acquisition. from Nov 29, 2012 The Racing Post reported this week that Ladbrokes are nearing a decision to acquire Betdaq. This baffles me, it really does. Betdaq are a complete and utter lemon. Their only rival in the market has kicked so many own goals over the years with the premium charge, followed by an increase in the premium charge, cost of API and data use, customer service standards which have fallen faster than Facebook share value, site crashes and various other faults. So many pissed off Betfair customers, yet Betdaq are still tailed off with a lap to go. Around the world, Betfair

lay the field - my favourite racing strategy

Dabbling with laying the field in-running at various prices today, not just one price, but several in the same race. Got several matched in the previous race at Brighton, then this race came along at Nottingham. Such a long straight at Nottingham makes punters often over-react and think the finish line is closer than it actually is. As you can see by the number of bets matched, there was plenty of volatility in this in-play market. It's rare you'll get a complete wipe-out with one horse getting matched at all levels, but it can happen, so don't give yourself too much risk...