(Lectures at the Observer Research Foundation, and The Madras Club, both at Chennai)
Some misconceptions
That match fixing is a phenomenon confined to cricket.
That match fixing is of recent origin—if not since the advent of IPL,
post 2000 and Hansiegate.
That match fixing in cricket is of Indian origin.
That sub-continent sportspersons are more corrupt than their western
counterparts.
Finally, that matches are fixed on a regular basis. (The truth is that
in contemporary times, spot fixing rather than match fixing is the general
norm).
Match fixing in the distant past
Match fixing has been occurring in many sports, almost since the time
competitive sport began.
Gambling took place in cricket as early as the 1700s.
Match fixing probably started in England. Bribing of players and
underperformance certainly occurred there in 1700.
“Butchers, tinkers, gardeners, farm labourers, noblemen, gentlemen
and clergy, all were equal under the laws of the game. Villagers, their wives
and children, watched together and applauded their favourite team and players,
while sporting bets were placed.”
(The Early History of Cricket by SM Toyne)
Toyne was quoting Trevelyan in his Social History of England.
In the 18th century,
every cricket match was played for money. The aristocracy financed the game in
order to gamble on it.
Newspapers reported the odds and who won the wager, but did not provide
scores.
Matches were played for a crown a head, but after the game became
fashionable in the 1740s, betting rose to fantastic sums of 1000 pounds or
more.
In one match, bets by spectators and players totaled 20000 pounds.
The laws of the game as first framed in 1744 were drawn up to settle
gambling disputes.
In early 19th century,
the game was in danger of ruin. It was the chief medium for national gambling.
Bookmakers attended matches, odds were called as the game fluctuated,
side bets on individual scores led to bribery and cheating.
One noted player took 100 pounds to lose a match.
“Matches were bought and matches were sold and gentlemen, who meant
honestly, lost large sums of money, till the rogues beat themselves at last. Of
this roguery, nobody ever suspected me.”
Hundreds of pounds were bet upon all the great matches, and other wagers
laid on the scores of the finest players. And that too by men who had a book
for every race and every match in the sporting world—men who lived by
gambling.”
These are the words of Billy Beldham, a Surrey batsman, quoted in 1851
by the Rev. Pycroft in his book The
Cricketer’s Fields, and rated
as late as 1997 named as one of the 100 greatest cricketers of all time by John
Woodcock.
According to an anonymous player Pycroft quoted, all the foremost
players met at the Green Man and Still, a pub on Oxford Street, London, to
drink, bet, play cards and sing.
William Lambert was perhaps the first cricketer to be found guilty of
match-fixing and banned from playing at Lord’s for life.
He was described as “one of the most successful cricketers that has as
yet appeared.”
Pycroft said “It’s just not cricket” for the first time in The
Cricketer’s Fields.
Bookmakers, earlier found sitting under the pavilion were banned from
Lord’s.
The game was cleaned up.
Until the 1990s and Hansiegate.
Before we come to corruption in contemporary cricket, let’s take a look
at some other sport. First baseball:
Baseball
Baseball had frequent problems with
gamblers influencing the game, until the 1920s when the Black Sox scandal and
the resultant merciless crackdown largely put an end to it.
1877
Four players from the Louisville
Grays of the National
League were found to have
thrown games in exchange for bribes from gamblers.
1908 bribery attempt
On the eve of the "playoff" game
between the Chicago Cubs and
the New York Giants to
decide the National League championship,
an umpire refused an attempted bribe intended to help the Giants win. The
Giants lost to the Cubs, and the matter was kept fairly quiet. It came out the
following spring, but the results of the official inquiry were kept secret.
However, the Giants' team physician for
1908 was reportedly the culprit and was banned for life.
1914 World Series upset
There was a stunning four-game sweep of
the Philadelphia
Athletics by the Boston
Braves in the 1914 World
Series. The Athletics said to be angry at their miserly owner, Connie Mack, did not give the Series their
best effort. Mack traded or sold all the stars away from that 1914 team.
1917-1918 suspicions
The manner in which the New York Giants lost to the Chicago
White Sox in the 1917 World
Series raised suspicions. Within two years, two players Zimmerman and Chase were suspended for life, due to a
series of questionable actions and associations.
There were rumours of World Series fixing
by members of the Chicago Cubs who lost the 1918 Series.
1919 Black Sox Conspiracy
Acquitted of criminal charges as throwing
baseball games was technically not a crime, the eight players were banned from
organized baseball for life.
It resulted in the appointment of a Commissioner of
Baseball who took firm steps to try to rid the game of gambling
influence permanently.
The Commissioners since then have been
ruthless, even suspending
well-known players for long periods just for having been seen with gamblers.
TENNIS
Match-fixing or
throwing in professional tennis is widespread and highly profitable for
players, according to a new analysis of the outcomes of games.
It found that
players outside the topmost ranks can make large sums from betting against
themselves and then feigning injury.
The cheating
goes on in the early rounds of less prestigious tournaments where junior
players stand to profit far more from betting scams than from winning a match,
the study said.
When a player
retires because of injury, the match is awarded to his opponent and bookies pay
out as if the game had been completed.
The findings
are by academics from the Max Planck Research School in Munich and Cambridge
University. Tennis has been under the shadow of cheating allegations since a
betting scandal five years ago.
Based on
examination of 54,000 matches the researchers said that there was ‘strong
evidence that such behaviour might be widespread’.
They called for
an end to all betting on matches in unimportant tournaments that the players
fail to complete.
An October 2003 report said
|
|
International tennis players are
deliberately throwing matches for financial gain. It is believed that bets of
up to $200,000 have been placed by players, through their coaches and other
intermediaries, with internet betting exchanges, resulting in massive payouts.
Most of the players under suspicion are outside
the top 100.
The Association of Tennis Professionals
recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the British-based company
Betfair, which gives the ATP access to its clients' records.
A 2005 report
41 players were
suspected of involvement in rigged games by the Swedish newspaper Svenska
Dagbladet. They will be subject to additional monitoring by ATP.
On the list were
top-ranked Nikolay Davydenko and Janko Tipsarevic.
A 2008 report
Nikolay Davydenko was cleared following
the longest inquiry ever held into match-fixing in tennis.
The 27-year-old Russian lost to Martin
Vassallo Arguello at the Polish Open in Sopot last August, retiring injured at
6-2, 3-6, 1-2 in the second round match which attracted nearly $7million
(£3.5m) in wagers on Betfair.
The online betting company Betfair took
the unprecedented step of voiding all bets because of highly-irregular gambling
patterns in the match.
At least 15 male players reported that
they had been approached to fix matches and several less-known Italian players
were punished for betting on matches, although none of the game's better-known
stars were implicated, bar the Russian.
It is believed that since a tough stand
was taken by the authorities, questionable activity among players and their
associates was substantially reduced.
A new concern emerged of people trying to
gain a split-second advantage ahead of television pictures by being at the
match.
Two spectators were thrown out of a
women’s event in Antwerp for suspicious use of laptops, while another was
expelled from the recent tournament in Dubai after being caught giving a
commentary via mobile phone.
6 September 2012
David Savic banned
The Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for
Sport (CAS) confirmed the decision of the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) that
David Savic be permanently ineligible to participate in any event organised or
sanctioned by any tennis governing body.
"CAS has confirmed the decision ...
to rule that David Savic be permanently ineligible to participate in any event
organised or sanctioned by any tennis governing body," said CAS in a
statement.
BADMINTON
2 AUGUST 2012
LONDON --
Eight badminton players at the London Olympics were kicked out of competition
Wednesday for trying to lose -- a display that drew outrage from fans and
organizers who said the women had violated the most sacred stage in sports.
After an
unexpected loss by a powerful Chinese doubles team, the eight women appeared to
play poorly on purpose to secure a more favorable position in the next phase of
the event.
The eight
doubles players from China, South Korea and Indonesia were cited by the
Badminton World Federation for "conducting oneself in a manner that is
clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport."
FOOTBALL
The 2006
Italian football scandal involved Italy's top
professional football leagues, Serie A and Serie B. The scandal was uncovered in May 2006 by Italian police, implicating league champions Juventus, and other major teams including AC Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio, and Reggina when a number of telephone interceptions showed a
thick network of relations between team managers and referee organisations.
Juventus were the champions of Serie A at the time. The teams were accused of
rigging games by selecting favourable referees.
6 JUN 2013
33 people and Serie B club Bari were
called to a sports trial before the country's football federation.
The charges include fixing and failing to
report fixing for two Serie B matches - Bari-Treviso (0-1) in May 2008 and
Salernitana-Bari (3-2) in May 2009.
Among those named were the Bari captain, a
former Bari captain, the Torino goalkeeper and an ex-Juventus assistant coach
and Bari player.
Most of those named by the federation have
also been indicted by a judge in Bari on charges of committing sports fraud.
At least 50 people were arrested in Italy
for match-fixing since the middle of 2011, with scores more under investigation
by prosecutors in Cremona, Bari and Napoli.
27 February 2013
ZURICH (AP) —
FIFA banned 74 more officials and players from world soccer for helping fix
matches, this time in Italy and South Korea.
FIFA imposed
sanctions on 70 people, including 11 who were banned for life, after a series
of cases prosecuted by Italian soccer authorities.
The charges
involved "match-fixing (direct involvement or omission to report
match-fixing), illegal betting or corrupt organization (association to commit
illicit acts)."
Prosecutors
in Cremona, Bari and Napoli pieced together a conspiracy they believe was
organized from Singapore to bet on rigged Italian soccer games.
DISHONESTY IN CRICKET IN INDIA
Rigging has taken place in Indian cricket
for a long time. I have seen a few instances at both the league and the Ranji
Trophy levels, though these arrangements between two friendly teams were not
based on financial considerations (It was quite another thing that there was no
money in cricket then).
I watched at least one Ranji Trophy match
in the early 1960s at Corporation Stadium between Madras and Hyderabad, in
which suspect declarations took place in both innings, with sub-50 totals in at
least one innings. It was apparently an attempt to ensure at least first
innings points in a rain-truncated match, rather than share points equally, the
case if one innings was not completed. This would of course have worked to the
disadvantage of Mysore, the other leading team in the zone. I could not locate
the scorecard for this match, though I am pretty sure I have my facts right.
There was no doubt however about a similar
game a few years later between Hyderabad and Mysore at Bangalore. Umpire NS
Rishi gave a scathing report on the captains of the two sides, but nothing came
of it.
There was a similarly dubious match
between Hyderabad and Tamil Nadu at Coimbatore in the 1980s, when the two teams
were charged with fixing the result of the match. I was particularly upset
because my brother Sivaramakrishnan played two outstanding innings in the game
on a treacherous wicket, and that performance was devalued by these reports.
Fixing was rampant in the local league,
mainly to save a friendly team to avoid relegation to the lower division or
help it win the championship. In one game I played, the two team managements
had evidently agreed we would give the opponents 2 batting points (the first
one when they made 175 and rthe second when they reached 225). My friend
Nedumaran and I were bowling when the score stood at 150 something for 7, when
the captain walked up to me and asked me to give away some easy runs. When I
refused, he tried his luck with Nedu who cursed him with some choice words. The
captain had no choice but to toe the line with these disobedient rascals, and
we bundled the opponents out under 175. Believe it or not, when we returned to
the pavilion we found the scorebook showed 226!
(There were also some comical situations
when teams deliberately tried to avoid taking wickets to improve their over
rate (the penalty for not maintaining it was a certain number of points) and
chaps dropping sitters to ensure that. In a match I played, a normally poor
fielder took a tumbling catch when the whole team was shouting at him to drop
it).
I also remember another match when a team
yielded more than a hundred byes to help the opponents, and actually came out
unscathed from an inquiry set up by the association, because there was no way
of proving that the extras were deliberately given.
This leads us to the point that fixing is
not something that can easily be proved beyond doubt.
BETTING AND RIGGING IN INDIAN CRICKET
Pakistan tour of India 1979-80
Though big money came into cricket only
after India won the Prudential World Cup in 1983, the first time financial
wrongdoing by a player was reported on Indian soil was during the 1979-80
series between the touring Pakistanis and India.
Asif Iqbal, born in Hyderabad, Deccan,
played for Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy before his migration to Pakistan in
the 1960s. He led Pakistan in India after Pakistan under the captaincy of
Mushtaq Mohammad had thrashed India the previous season in Pakistan.
This was a six-Test series, and at the end
of the 5th Test, India
was already leading 2-0 in the rubber, leaving no chance for Pakistan to level
the series.
Two suspicious things happened during the
Calcutta Test. Sunil Gavaskar standing down from captaincy, GR Viswanath was
picked to deputise for him. At the toss, GRV was surprised when Asif told him,
“You win.What are you doing?” when he in fact believed he had lost the toss.
The second puzzle of the match was Asif’s
declaration of the Pakistan first innings at 272 for 4 behind India’s 331 all
out.
Though it could be read as a bold move to
try and win the match, there was a cloud over the decision.
Rumours were afloat that Asif was involved
in betting on the match. I met a man who claimed he was taking a certain sum of
money for Asif to Calcutta a couple of days before the Test. I thought it was
an empty boast.
THE SHARJAH MATCHES AND OTHER ODIs
Most of the matches involving India and Pakistan played at Sharjah came
to be suspect in time. In the end BCCI outlawed Sharjah as a venue where India
would take part.
It was in 1997 that Aniruddha Bahal of Outlook came back from India’s
tour of South Africa and told his editor Tarun Tejpal, “Forget cricket stories.
The big story is that everyone—players, administrators, commentators,
journalists, everybody—is betting.All the time.”
Bahal later met Manoj Prabhakar in pursuit of his match-fixing story.
Prabhakar eventually wrote in Outlook that a teammate offered him Rs. 25
lakh to underperform.
Prabhakar also mentioned a match in Sharjah where Indian batsmen were told to play on in darkness by
the management
Prabhakar also spoke of a match at Kanpur in 1994 when he and Nayan
Mongia were penalized for batting slowly.
Unfortunately for whistle blower Prabhakar, he was to be penalized by
the BCCI after it ordered its own investigation, following Hansie Cronje’s
confession before the King Commission of South Africa after Delhi police nailed
him.
Here’s the list of Indian players banned or punished by BCCI
Mohd. Azharuddin, Manoj Prabhakar, Ajay Sharma, Ajay Jadeja,
Here’s a complete rundown of the betting/ match fixing timeline:
1981
Australian
players Dennis Lillee and Rodney Marsh bet against their own team, backing
England at the odds of 500 to one in the Headingley Test. No action was taken
against them.
1992-93
Australian
batsman Dean Jones claims to have been offered $50,000 by an Indian to provide
information about the team during the Lankan tour.
1993
Allan Border
alleges that he was offered £500,000 by Mushtaq Mohammed to lose a Test match
against England.
1996
Former Indian
team manager, Sunil Dev alleges that some of the Indian players indulged in
match fixing and demands a judicial enquiry.
1997
Manoj Prabhakar
accuses a fellow Team India player of offering him Rs 25 lakh to throw a match
in Sri Lanka in 1994. His revelation leads the BCCI to appoint a commission to
look into the allegation.
1998
Pakistan bowler
Ata-ur-Rahman accuses Wasim Akram of offering him Rs 3 lakh to bowl badly
against New Zealand. As a result of this allegation, Wasim Akram resigns as
captain of the Pakistan team.
1998
Rashid Latif
accuses Wasim Akram, Salim Malik, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Ijaz Ahmed of fixing
matches. He also accuses Salim Malik of fixing matches during Pakistan's twin
tour of South Africa and Zimbabwe in 1994-95.
1998
Mark Waugh,
Shane Warne and Tim May claim they were offered $50,000 to lose a Test by Salim
Malik during their tour to Pakistan in 1994. The Australian cricket board then
asks the ICC to appoint a panel to look into the allegations. The PCB in its
enquiry implicates three Pakistan players and recommends a ban on Salim Malik.
1998
Shane Warne and
Mark Waugh confess to having accepted $11,000 from an Indian bookie to give
some information on playing conditions during a tournament played in Sri Lanka
in 1994. The Australian cricket board later says that it would impose a hefty
fine on Warne and Waugh.
1999
Former England
player Chris Lewis says that he was offered £300,000 to persuade England
players to lose a match against New Zealand.
April 7, 2000
Delhi police
charge Hansie Cronje with fixing South Africa's ODIs against India. Delhi
police also reveal that they possess a conversation recorded during the ODI
series between India and South Africa in March. They allege that the taped
voices were of South African skipper Hansie Cronje and an Indian bookie, Sanjay
Chawla. The conversation was about divulging team information and the amount to
be paid to Cronje and his team-mates Herschelle Gibbs, Pieter Strydom and Nicky
Boje.
April 11, 2000
The South
African cricket board sacks Hansie Cronje after he calls Ali Bacher to confess
that he was not entirely honest and admitted that to have accepted $10,000 to
$15,000 from a London-based bookmaker, for forecasting results, not
match-fixing.
April 15, 2000
Now, clouds of
match fixing surround England's victory in the Centurion Test, where Cronje
took the unexpected step of forfeiting an innings.
April 16, 2000
It is revealed
that South Africa nearly accepted a $250,000 to lose an ODI against India in
Mumbai in 1996. The players had discussed the offer in three meetings before it
was turned down as Jonty Rhodes, Dave Richardson and Andrew Hudson were against
it.
May 24, 2000
After a year
long enquiry, Justice Qayyum finds Saleem Malik and Ata-ur-Rehman guilty of
fixing matches and recommends life bans for the two. The report also says Wasim
Akram and Mushtaq Ahmed should not be allowed to captain Pakistan in the
future. Today Wasim is a respected commentator and coach while Mushtaq is
England’s spin bowling coach.
June 7, 2000
Former South
African spinner Pat Symcox alleges that the team was offered around $250,000 to
throw an ODI, on the first day of the King Commission hearings.
June 8, 2000
Herschelle
Gibbs accuses Hansie Cronje of offering him a bribe to throw a match and tells
the King Commission that he had accepted Cronje's offer of $15,000 to score
less than 20 runs in an ODI in India.
June 15, 2000
Cronje admits
taking money for giving information to bookmakers and asking his team-mates to
play badly. But he tells the King Commission that South Africa had never thrown
or fixed a match under his captaincy.
June 27, 2000
Former
Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Sir Paul Condon becomes the
International Cricket Council's new anti-corruption investigator.
July 20, 2000
Indian income
tax officials raid the homes of top cricket players, including those of then
national coach Kapil Dev, former players Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Nayan Mongia
and Nikhil Chopra.
August 28, 2000
The United
Cricket Board of South Africa bans Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams from
international cricket for the rest of the year for their involvement in the
Cronje scandal.(Henry Williams agreed to give away more than 50 runs in his ten
overs, but had to stop after two overs because of injury. He gave 11 runs. He
was upset that Cronje who made him underperform did not support him when he was
in trouble).
October 11,
2000
Cronje is
banned from cricket for life by the United Cricket Board of South Africa as a
result of his admission that he received money from bookmakers.
"The UCBSA
council hereby intends to ban Hansie Cronje for life from all activities of the
UCBSA and its affiliates," says a statement issued by the United Cricket
Board of South Africa.
October 31,
2000
Bookmaker MK
Gupta names several players including Brian Lara, Dean Jones, Alec Stewart,
Arjuna Ranatunga, Aravinda de Silva, Martin Crowe and Saleem Malik of being
involved in match fixing, says a CBI report. The CBI also says that former
India captain Mohammad Azharuddin confessed to fixing games with the help of
colleagues Ajay Jadeja and Nayan Mongia.
November 27,
2000
BCCI's
anti-corruption commissioner K Madhavan finds Mohammad Azharuddin guilty of
match-fixing, while Ajay Jadeja, Manoj Prabhakar, Ajay Sharma and former Indian
team physio Ali Irani are found guilty of having links with bookies.
December 5,
2000
BCCI bans
Azharuddin for life and Ajay Jadeja for five years for their role in
match-fixing. Ajay Sharma is also banned from the game for life, while
Prabhakar and the Indian team's former physio, Ali Irani, are barred from
holding any official post in Indian cricket for five years.
July 11, 2001
Former England
wicketkeeper batsman Alec Stewart is cleared of allegations that he took money
from a bookmaker in return for providing team and pitch information during
England's 1992-93 tour of India.
May 12, 2004
Marvan Atapattu
is cleared of match-fixing allegations for lack of evidence by the Sri Lankan
Cricket Board.
August 17, 2004
Kenyan player
Maurice Odumbe is banned for five years by the Kenyan Cricket Association after
he is found guilty of receiving money from bookmakers.
November 7,
2004
Stephen Fleming
alleges that he was offered $370,000 during the 1999 World Cup to join a
match-fixing syndicate.
May 13, 2008
West Indies
player Marlon Samuels is slapped a ban of two years for allegedly passing on
information to an Indian bookie during an ODI series in India in 2007.
August 2009
The Australia
team's management files a report with the ICC's anti-corruption unit after one
of their players says he was approached by a man suspected of links to illegal
bookmaking, after Australia's defeat to England at Lord's
May 2010
The
Bangladesh captain, Shakib-Al-Hasan, confirms he received an approach, believed
to be in March 2008, from an unknown person who Shakib believes wanted him to
manipulate the result of a one-day match against Ireland
September 2010
The Essex
bowler Mervyn Westfield appears at the City of London magistrates court on
charges of spot-fixing relating to the Pro 40 match against Durham in September
2009, in which he bowled four wides and two no-balls
3 November 2011
Pakistan's
Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif are incarcerated over no-balls
bowled deliberately against England at Lord's in 2010. Their agent, Mazheer
Majeed, is jailed for two and a half years
12 January 2012
Westfield
pleads guilty to accepting £6,000 to give away runs in the Pro 40 match against
Durham and is warned by Judge Anthony Morris at the Old Bailey that he may face
a prison sentence
IPL 2012
5 players were banned for spot-fixing or bringing the game into
disrepute while gaining pecuniary advantage.
IPL 2013
Three
Rajasthan Royals players were arrested for their alleged role in spot-fixing.
Sreesanth apparently agreed to bowl an expensive over in the May 9 clash
against Kings XI Punjab. The other two Chandila and Chauhan also agreed to act
at the behest of bookies, in return for money. BCCI suspended the trio
May 17: Ex-RR
player who turned bookie
Amit Singh,
one of the bookies arrested a day earlier played for Rajasthan Royals in the
earlier seasons. BCCI chief N Srinivasan stated ‘guilty will be punished’. More
bookies arrested, this time from Chennai.
May 20: RR
suspends contracts
Royals
suspended the contracts of Sreesanth, Chandila and Chavan. They also filed FIR
against the trio for violation of contract. An amount of Rs. 20 lakh was
recovered from the house of a relative of Chandila in Haryana. All three
arrested cricketers were sent to five-day police custody.
May 21:
Bollywood link exposed
Vindu Dara
Singh was arrested for his alleged links with bookies.
May 22: BCCI
comes into the picture
In the most
striking instance of insider involvement in the betting racket, Vindu mentioned
the name of BCCI President N. Srinivasan’s son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan, with
whom, the actor claimed, he was in ‘frequent touch’. Meanwhile, Vindu admitted
that he helped a couple of bookies escape to Dubai.
Extracts from the
Findings of a study entitled
Sports betting and corruption
How to preserve the integrity of sport
Carried out by
IRIS (Institut de Relations Internationales et Strategiques), University of
Salford (Manchester), Praxes Avocats and CCLS (Université de Pékin)
Modus operandi of corruptors in sport
Direct approach or threats of violence by
the underworld
Financial corruption by offering money for
underperformance
3 referees were approached by Greek
delegate to favour Greece in European Basketball Championship in Lithuania in
2011.
German ref. was offered 20000 Euro. Tennis
players like Younis El Ayanaoui of Morocco was offered 25000 to lose to young
player.
Belgian player Giles Elseneer was offered
100000 euro to lose 1st round
Wimbledon.
Another Belgian Dick Norman was similarly
offered bribes twice to lose a
match.
Arnaud Clement of France was also offered
a bribe.
Corruption through intermediaries; grooming; honeytraps.
Just as a former Rajasthan Royals player was an agent for the corruptor
in the recent RR spot fixing scandal, several former footballers were involved
in the football match-rigging scam that exploded in Italy in May 2011. They
contacted the captain or goalkeeper and paid them 400000 euro, which became the
official rate for buying a Serie A player.
The grooming of a player can be done gradually through money, gifts,
even sexual favours.
Punishing fraud in sport and the law
Generally sports betting is poorly monitored.
Actions like phone-tapping and surveillance of bank data require police
and public authorities.
Bodies like FIFA, ICC and ITF hire former policemen to head anbti-match
fixing units.
In England, cheating in betting became a criminal offence in 2005.
Without that amendment of the law, the Pakistani cricketers Salman Butt,
Mohammed Asif and Mohammad Amir could not have been awarded prison sentences.
In Turkey a fixer can be imprisoned for 5 to 12 years.
France is trying to legislate similarly.
In Indian law, cheating in betting, i.e., match fixing is not yet a
criminal offence.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Regulation
Standards prohibiting stakeholders from sports betting or communicating
sensitive information. Severe disciplinary sanctions are needed. Obligation to
report any attempted approach by bookies, or suspicious outsiders.
Raising awareness
Information programme for managers of sports bodies focusing onknowledge
of global betting market and the risks connected with them
Programme to educate at grassroots level focusing on methods of approach
of corruptors and the risk to your career if you take part in fraud
Surveillance
Knowledge of the dynamism of the market and commercial exploitation of
games by betting operators. Close coordination between sports bodies and
regulatory authorities
Surveillance during matches, tournaments, especially during matches where
the result is not significant
Testing operations to strengthen surveillance and deterrence among
referees, players, managers, coaches, umpires.
Integration of resources
Coordination within a unit dedicated to combating fraud in sport
attached to the international federation.
Establishment of a network of points of contact or sports betting
integrity officers responsible for coordinating action within their
organization and linking up with public authorities.
Establishment of protocols to follow in trhe event of an approach or
suspicion, both within the sports organization and in conjunction with the
authorities
Most important reform
Establishment of a corruption-in-sport monitoring centre.
A central database at an international federation level will facilitate
gathering and sharing of information on corruption in sport linked to betting.
The centre can provide quantitative data for suspicious cases and
disciplinary or criminal proceedings instituted within sports bodies and
countries across the world.
It will be a think tank for creating an agency for the integrity of
sport, which will have formal competence and the power of constrant and
sanction over the sports movement.
Finally,
Legalisation of betting
Match fixing may never totally rooted out, legalization of betting will
produce a regulated market with proper trails of transactions. Names of
bettors, IP addresses ,
email ids and phone numbers will be available, enabling prompt investigation of
suspicious behavior. Direct contact by punters with players can be prevented
thus.
Why do sportsmen cheat?
I have found as a sportsman myself that the average sportsman is
different from the average person in mainstream life. He is likely to be
self-centred if not selfish, very ambitious, driven. He’s not afraid to take
risks, that’s why he’s a competitive sportsman. Sportsmen who are disciplined
outside sports as in studies, employment etc. are exceptional, not the norm.
Increasingly they come from non-traditional sporting backgrounds, with their
education inadequate. Often they grow up believing it is all right to give or
accept bribes, dowry, drive on the wrong side of the road, work hard so that
you can earn well in life, rather than pursue excellence for the sake of
excellence. So if someone is paying me one lakh to play for my team, and
someone else offers me 2 lakh to underperform, is it really wrong, especially
if I don’t get caught? Maybe that’s how the vulnerable youngster thinks.
I believe education in honesty, commitment to excellence, focus etc. should
start young, at home. Parents play a vital role here. Selection of teams from
the youngest age-group levels could include psychological testing for qualities
like integrity, leadership, mental strength along with testing for skills. With
the kind of financial strength the Board has it should be a feasible
proposition to extend moral education to all levels of sport.
“Cheating is especially easy to justify when you frame
situations to cast yourself as a victim of some kind of unfairness,” said Dr.
Anjan Chatterjee, a neurologist at the University of Pennsylvania who has
studied the use of prescription drugs to improve intellectual performance.
“Then it becomes a matter of evening the score; you’re not cheating, you’re
restoring fairness.”
"People have and continue to do what they can get
away with," says Andy Barton, a mental performance coach who has worked
with numerous elite athletes across football, rugby, Olympic sports and other
disciplines.
"In sport there is constant analysis of what others are doing, from
using breathing strips to the effect of energy drinks," he says.
"Coaches and analysts become aware of what can change a game, so
that can even extend to things like seeing how players go down to win
penalties."
"Competitors who are ego orientated [always comparing themselves to
others] are prone to unsporting behaviour," he says.
"This is often exasperated by a 'win at all costs' attitude in
their sports environment.
"Some people are motivated by external rewards and are more likely
to cheat. Others enjoy the sport and self-improvement and that is their
motivation."
Finally, is ICC doing enough?
Most of you will agree with me that it is not doing enough. It has not
given evidence of its seriousness in uprooting cheating from cricket. World Cup
2011 was a prime example. The semifinal was surrounded by suspicion. Bookie
intelligence predicted the outcome of the India-Pakistan encounter with
startling precision. Sir Paul Condon, chief of ACSU, who had promised a clean
World Cup was not so sure afterwards, but no serious investigation seems to
have been instituted into that and other suspect matches in the tournament.
I close with the words of Jacques
Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 1 March 2011
“There will definitely be more rigged matches in future if the
world of sport closes its eyes to them, and if we do not have good contact with
betting companies and governments. Eventually the credibility of results will
be called into question. Sport is based on a hierarchy that derives its social
and moral values from the concept of merit. The winner should be the one who
has poured the most lawful resources into their preparation or who has worked
the hardest. If in future the concept of a champion as a model of excellence
becomes tarnished by the manipulation of matches or the corruption of players,
then the entire credibility of sport will vanish.
(...) There are already countries where football competitions are no
longer credible and where the public has very clearly lost interest in that
sport.”
