Hello World,
Some days back,
I visited one of my friends and got to watch an IPL cricket match on the
television. A lot of things flashed
through my mind as I watched the barrage of intentional half-volleys hurled at
batsmen who repeatedly cleared the boundaries that alarmingly fit in one view
covering the batsman and the wicketkeeper. So here’s my perspective on how a
fine team sport got transformed into a flashy form of sports entertainment. Click here to download the pdf version of this post.
Match Fixing,
Spread Fixing, Spot Fixing are just a few famous terms that frequently appear
on the media, quite surprisingly, just prior to a series of high scoring
history-setting cricket matches. My opinion stands that the betting racket is a
widespread black-market business and it has penetrated the organized official
versions of cricket. Every time some fixing news leaks, the media creates a
buzz and then all of a sudden the reports vanish and we are offered the best of
cricket matches immediately. The public’s media memory is always short lived
and it has been leveraged for all what it is worth.
What specifically
Let me begin
with the eye-opener incident that questioned my faith in the televised versions
of cricket. It was 2001 and South Africa was touring India. The Delhi Police
attempted to tape the phone calls of suspects involved in a possible criminal
case and ended up hearing the then South African cricket team’s captain Hansie
Cronje conversing on topics that would otherwise violate the law or at least
the policies as laid out by the ICC. Further investigation led the Delhi police
to identify the existence of a huge betting racket running right under their
noses, that has grown big enough to contact international players with offers
of money in exchange for a wide array of help that would include but not limited
to fixed match results, information on playing conditions, bowling and batting
orders and so on.
Find below the
media coverage of this incident before you read any further:
Here are the links for the same videos:
We are here
primarily to discuss the opportunities available in the cricket scene for
betting and the subsequent fixing of elements of the game to facilitate and
control the betting business model. So we would discuss on how betting works
and how it causes fixing in the games. We would be questioning the
circumstantial elements involved in famous betting/fixing events that had
happened in the past and attempt to look into the reasons. I strongly believe,
a clear idea of the intention behind any act can lead us to the possible
reasons or motivations. Again, fixing does not necessarily mean “fixing the
outcome of the game.” Let’s roll.
Cine Crime in Cricket
Right after the New
Delhi match-fixing incident, Hansie Cronje denied all the allegations and stood
by his denial of all charges thrown at him. Unfortunately, it did not last very
long. A detailed investigation later on found evidences against Hansie Cronje
and he confessed. Things turned out in ways nobody expected. He just accepted
his willfully committed mistakes and explained all such incidents and his
actions. Mysteriously, he got killed in a plane crash. The circumstances as alleged
indicate that his scheduled flight from Johannesburg to George was grounded and
he had to travel as the only passenger on a turboprop aircraft (cargo flight) that
had malfunctioning navigational equipment which led to the aircraft’s crash to
the Outeniqua Mountain located
to the north of George. Now checking the systems prior to take-off is very
important and therefore the checklist formalities in aviation industry is very
elaborate and time consuming. It is true that pilots and mechanics tend to skip
the checks that are often conceived as a trivial or “it-cannot-fail-so-soon”
situation but they would never do it to an extent of risking their or passengers’ lives.
In case of navigational equipment in an aircraft, during an emergency, whenever
two pilots are involved, one calls for the check and the other responds by
executing the check. Usually it is the Pilot Flying (PF) who would call for the
check/setting and the Pilot Not Flying (PNF) would respond by adjusting the
setting of the navigational equipment to the desired mode/level as called for
by the Pilot Flying. There is a specific element of this check where the PF
would call for the setting-up of lateral and vertical navigation limits (LNAV/VNAV)
where the PNF, based on the terrain information would set the safe-altitude and
so on. The procedure seems “too-careful” and “why-so-serious” type but this is what
makes the flight safe and comfortable for the pilots, crew and the passengers.
Now the safe-altitude is just among other
information that the pilots are provided with prior to the flight. The pilots
are trained to handle emergency situations too. If the pilots of the Hawker Siddeley HS 748 lost visibility due
to bad weather, they very well knew how to move out of the bad weather and land
accordingly. Sometimes pilots just circle around following guidelines from the Air
Traffic Control (ATC). Also, in case of bad weather, the ATC informs the pilots
so they can take necessary counter-measures. In this case of plane crash, the
pilots lost visibility and were circling around when they encountered
malfunctioning navigational equipment which mysteriously led them to crash in
the mountains. With malfunctioning equipment, circling would not have been
possible as that would not have been the obvious choice. You need to know where
you are and where you are headed before you start circling around looking for a
good time and route. In bad weather, pilots usually move out into clear skies
and then look for alternative routes with ATC in radio-contact. So why would trained pilots circle around
in low-visibility with faulty navigational equipment? The black-box data
and the ATC comm-log need to be published for clarity. If there had been an
international aviation regulation that calls for the public release of such
data after such an accident, the public can learn about the actual cause of the
accident. The official investigation ended up declaring it as a “Pilot Error (Act
of Omission)” which led to the accident that resulted in the death of Hansie Cronje
and the two pilots. This is more than Bollywood cinema. A tainted sportsman who
confessed and gave out names and details of his involvement in malpractice
hitches a ride on a cargo flight, when the pilots choose to circle around in
low visibility in spite of faulty equipment and plane crashes into the
mountains killing them all. This beats a traditional “dead-hero-comes-alive”
movie script. It is true that we are working here with alleged information but
more than the information, it is the construct and composition that raises the
questions…..”What are the chances for this to happen?” and “Why would this
happen to Hansie Cronje right after he confessed and divulged sensitive
information?” The mystery remains….
This incident
did shock me to the core as I was a serious cricket fan. I remember my dad
asking me to bunk school, only to watch the Indian cricket team play. Watching cricket
on TV was so important to me and my dad at that time. After the match-fixing
scandal broke out, we were devastated and angry over the players who were
caught and penalized. But as the events turned out, my attention grew in a
specific direction.
Right after
Hansie Cronje’s confession and death, the media, especially the television
channels went crazy over Hansie’s involvement in fixing and broadcasted videos
of him and his team mates tampering with the ball. The media took a stand on
Hansie as if he had always been a corrupt cricketer who kept low profile all
the while. Now televised cricket dates long back compared to the times of the
Hansie Cronje incident. That means there are not minutes or hours but years of
cricketing video to analyze for possible malpractice on the field. How the hell did the media only find Hansie’s
videos of ball tampering from the archives? More importantly, …If a cameraman catches a player red-handed
in an act of malice/misconduct, zooms in to capture the player in the act right
during match, why was that not looked-into at the very moment, or later on
after the match for further disciplinary action against the
player/team/management?
With more than a dozen cameras around a
cricket field, there must be a centralized control for monitoring all cameras
and the broadcast of footages based on the media requirements. So the cameraman
shot the player tampering with the ball, zoomed in but said nothing, the
controller kept it from being broadcast, the officiating authorities neglected
to review it and the ICC did nothing to investigate and even the news of such
an act never made it out into public domain. But right after the concerned
player’s filmy death in a plane-crash, the exact footage of the player engaging
in ball tampering comes out in flying colors accompanied by media scrutiny.
With all due respect to the media and cricketing authorities all over the
world, ….Do you really think the public is so dumb that nobody would realize
the background of these media manipulations????!!?!!?? What happened was a
special case of paid advertisement, the subject of which was the negative
publicity targeted at Hansie Cronje, who at that time was not even alive to
respond to.
It doesn’t end
here, unfortunately.
On 18th
March, 2007, the then Pakistan cricket team’s Head Coach, Bob Woolmer was found
dead in his hotel room. This incident happened right after Pakistan’s
elimination from the world cup after losing to Ireland. Dr. Ere Seshaiah, the
pathologist who performed the autopsy on Bob Woolmer’s body recorded his
findings and released it, claiming that Bob Woolmer died from “Asphyxia via
Manual Strangulation” and “Cypermethrin Poisoning.” Surprisingly, these terms
did not make it to the media very loud. The initial reports said that the Jamaican
police have registered a case and are looking into possible murder
investigation. The possibilities of poisoning and strangulation did not stay
long on air. Out of the blue three independent pathologists were commissioned
by the police. The expert analysis and findings of the independent pathologists
ruled out death due to poisoning and strangulation and declared that the death
was due to natural causes. The natural causes were never released, defined or
explained in any of the official statements. At least the media did not care to
get the specifics of the natural causes, given that the media often shows great
interest in the specifics of scandalous actresses and page-3 parties. Let’s get
this straight. A man died, the
pathologist who did the autopsy specifically mentioned his findings and cause of
death, 3 independent pathologists were commissioned, they ruled out the initial
findings of the pathologist but NEVER MENTIONED THE SPECIFIC TERMS for the
cause of death of the man. There may be circumstances where in certain
cases, the signs and symptoms of death vanish due to their volatile nature.
Certain poisons just vaporize from the body leaving no traces and dead flesh
decomposes which may also result of loss of evidence related to the cause of
death. But at least that has to be mentioned in the official report released to
the media. Calling “NATURAL CAUSES THAT LEAD TO CARDIAC ARREST” just out of the
blue without mentioning the specifics is intentional with the intentions
remaining unexplained.
Dr. Ere Seshaiah
was the Chief Consultant Forensic Pathologist and Director of Legal Medicine
Unit in the Ministry of Jamaica in the West Indies when he performed the
autopsy on Bob Woolmer’s body. He did his MBBS (the basic medical degree in
general medicine, here in India), MD in Forensic Medicine and worked as
assistant professor of Forensic Medicine until 1993 before accepting the offer to
serve as the Chief Consulting Forensic Pathologist and Director of Legal Medicine
Unit in the Ministry of Jamaica. Now the Jamaican police commissioned three independent
pathologists to re-verify the analysis, findings and conclusions of this man,
Dr. Ere Seshaiah, whose illustrious career until before the Bob Woolmer murder
case was solely responsible for him to be chosen for the position and the task
of performing the autopsy on Bob Woolmer’s body in the first place. This can
never happen unless there was an order from the superiors of the authorities
who headed the Bob Woolmer murder investigation. Why would they do such thing?
How can a specialist go wrong in his analysis and findings? An autopsy report
cannot just have the cause of death and the signature of the pathologist. He/She
has to analyze the body, look for signs and symptoms, document them
appropriately and then based on the documented findings arrive at the cause of
death.
Here’s anarticle made available by the University of West Indies at Mona, Jamaica that
has a brief mentions of Asphyxia and its classification from the forensic
standpoint. Click here to download the document. As per this document, that I
presume is for educational/research purposes, the definition of Asphyxia are:
“Asphyxia
is defined as hypoxia/anoxia that is caused when respiratory function is
hampered by interference with the mechanics of breathing.”
Also, as per the document, the different
classification schemes for asphyxia are:
1.
Suffocation
2.
Smothering
3.
Choking
4.
Strangulation
(as mentioned by Dr. Seshaiah)
5.
Hanging
6.
Drowning
7.
Crush
(Traumatic) asphyxia
The
forensic pathologist, Dr. Ere Seshaiah had documented his findings and
concluded on a specific cause of death namely “Asphyxia due to manual
strangulation.” How can the experienced
forensic pathologist go wrong with the conclusion or cause of death? Even by
the remotest of chances, if Dr. Seshaiah was actually wrong on the cause of
death, the postmortem findings as documented need to be clarified as they have
been identified as the signs of death. So the media gave us an initial report
that was specific but turned out to be wrong/erroneous but the subsequent
expert reports did nothing but nullify the initial report and close the file
with a blunt “natural cause” as the reason. For this joke of an investigation,
Scotland Yard worked together with the Jamaican police.
Did
ICC (International Cricket Council) start any internal probe? Mainly because
the official coach of a participating team was found dead in the premises of
the facility organized/rented by the World Cup organizers for the safe and
comfortable stay of the participants. If a legally legit organization is
organizing an international event where a participant dies, is it not the
responsibility of the organizers to probe in its own domain and release the
information on the circumstances during which the death might have taken place?
Even if such a thing has happened, why has it not been publicized by the ICC?
Its name is tarnished anyways. At least scientifically identifying the cause of
death and releasing the information to the public would be an act of courtesy
towards the dead man. Bob Woolmer is now dead and he died out of natural causes
(that nobody knows of) under mysterious circumstances. What a way to pay
someone back for his life-long contribution to cricket.
There
were a few mentions of Bob Woolmer writing a book where he was alleged to have
revealed match-fixing scams he had seen during his days. It is hard to know if
such a thing would have happened but it has to be mentioned that he was the one
who spoke to Cronje over an earpiece that Hansie carried into the field during
a match in 1999. So I am sure Bob Woolmer knew more about match fixing even
before he joined the Pakistan team as coach. He even speaks of knowing it in
the interviews marked above (the YouTube videos). Pakistan team too was under
the scanner for various fixing allegations during the time of Bob Woolmer’s
death.
Sting Operations that Stink
Recent
media-led sting operations had a lot of cricketers accepting to under-perform,
or rather “perform in specific terms” for a financial favor. At first these
were shocking to watch but later on we just got used to it because the sting
operations did nothing but raise the news channels’ TRP. But there is a pattern
in which such events are handled. Every time someone gets caught, the media
just riddles the individuals with accusations and does not question the
credibility of the governing body that is responsible for the sport’s
administration. The news channels do the probing but the channels that actually
telecast the various forms of cricket do nothing to add to the fixing stories
or scandals. That is because they don’t want their broadcasting rights to be
cancelled. Again, this is the indicator of the big brother’s hand over the
media. The telecasting channels are friendly media and the news channels that
do the sting operations are the mosquitoes that BCCI and ICC has to bear with.
Fixing the Elements
Fixing
does not always mean fixing the outcome of the game. A player not hitting a
century, fall of wickets within a certain number of overs, no-ball/wide in an
over are just some of the elements of the game that can be fixed. These are the
specific spots that are often betted on. Since the betting racket has grown,
billions of dollars change hands during any given series involving a huge
number of individuals spread across the world. Now when the money gets bigger, the betting organizers
get motivated to influence the game in such a way that the most favored outcome
doesn’t happen so that the house makes more money than the players in the
betting game. This is where bookies contact captains, coaches and individual
players with offers of gifts for specific acts during the game.
A
no-ball in the second over of the game is not a crime as big as a murder, to the
bowler who agrees to bowl a no-ball in exchange for money. A batsman choosing
to get out quickly is not a big deal either. Things like these do not usually
impact the match result but the fact remains that the cricket broadcasted is
not real in every sense. In case of a fixed outcome of the game, more number of
players would agree to perform in specific terms to ensure the fixed result in
exchange for a financial favor. The players are professionals and professionals
respond to remuneration for their professional services. If someone is going to
offer a huge amount of money for a simple task as a deliberate no-ball, then a
bowler would do it. The amount of money may vary from bowler to bowler. Very few
players may be out there, not willing to be part of the fixing scene and
expecting to be out of the team anytime. When the entry into a team requires
money and recommendation, the entrant is bound to make an effort to recover
his/her entry fee. Just my thought.
The Reality
The
televised forms of cricket are nothing but a modern form of sports entertainment
that have very little reality. It does engage the audience and entertain them
but not in the realistic sense. Be it Hansie Cronje or Sreesanth, players have
always been working with bookies over the years. These guys are just unlucky to
be trapped by the media. Some of them just run out of luck and pay with their life. There are a whole bunch of players who have completed their careers,
earning more out of spot-fixing than their actual player salaries. Even today
there are so many players out there who agree to do specific tasks in exchange
for money. This won’t hurt anyone, if it is clearly mentioned that the Test
matches, One Day Internationals and IPL games that are broadcasted are actually
SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT and not actual sporting events. I mean, World Wrestling
Federation once broadcasted by Star Sports was a huge hit. Kids were fighting
in the backyard trying to imitate the wrestlers. I know for I was one among
them. Undertaker is still my favorite wrestler and when I was a kid I used to
believe he came back from the dead. Today’s televised forms of cricket are the
same, offering a different variety of sports entertainment.
Sports
Entertainment is not bad at all. We need entertainment. We just don’t need to
be fooled into watching Pre-Designed Cricket Drama claiming them to be honest
sporting events. Does betting happen everywhere? Yes it does. Do the bookies
fix elements of the game with the players? Yes they do. How frequently? More
frequently than we would imagine it is.
Do
you notice that the worst teams in the past seasons of the IPL are shining like
a star in this season?
Do
you feel weird when all the bowlers are bowling half-volleys outside the stumps
in IPL?
Do
you tend to think about record-setting high-scoring games right after every
match-fixing scandal?
Hurray!!!
You just realized you are watching Cricketing Drama. But it is nothing to be
ashamed of. You love cricket and you have every right to watch it. How do we
handle this thing? Watch the cricket matches without believing them as you
would watch a movie or a sitcom.
Please
remember that every game you watch can have someone bought, threatened or even
killed in the background……..All for the silly 2-second attention you would give
to the advertisements during the broadcast of the game. Bob Woolmer and Hansie
Cronje were famous and we could know about them. I am sure there have been many
who sacrificed their lives so you could host your friends to a great evening of
cricketing action with snacks. Many have lost their reputation only because
they wanted to help you make more money on a no-ball or six from your favorite
player. They did have financial motivations of their own but it was a mutual
feeling you see.
It is time we digest the fact that the cricket on television
is a sport turned sports entertainment without the steel cage or ladder matches
but sadly with occasional spills of original blood.
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Regards,
