I have been quiet the last couple of weeks. It was not the lack of things to interest me; it was just that I have been away in the North of England staying with the family and investigating my family history. But it is the silly season. And there are lots of daft stories around.
We are assaulted by stories that suggest that Foreign Secretary William Hague is gay. Did he sleep with his 25 year old adviser? Who cares - except his wife? Why do we need to know? Is there a risk of a Profumo scandal when he is blackmailed into give information to a foreign power? Which foreign power? What information? I tend to take the "Yes Minister" approach. Whatever William Hague knows, the Russians know already.
More serious is the Pakistani cricket bribery and match fixing scandal. The story, as everyone knows now, originated rom a News of the World set-up, where, on camera an agent was given £150,000 to prove that he could bribe Pakistani cricketers to fix some aspects of a match. In this case, it was agreed that there would be spot fixes - ie certain things would be pre-ordained. In this case two fast bowlers would bowl no-balls with three specific balls in specific overs. This then occurred in the following test against England - where the no-balls were so blatant that the TV commentators were amazed at just how far over the crease line the bowlers went. It did not in any way affect the result of the match but was there anything else = that we don't know about - that did affect the result? Captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir have been withdrawn from the team. Latest news this morning is an allegation that the police have found marked currency notes in the hotel room and the locker of Butt. If this is the case, then it is difficult to see a defence. The evidence of a fix is quite powerful. But I think we need to wait until we have the full story. I feel quite sorry for the two bowlers. None of us yet knows the truth but it is unbelievable that the bowlers contrived the no-balls without the specific instructions or agreement of the captain. I think the case of Mohammad Amir is particularly sad. He comes from a very poor Pakistani family and I am sure that he wanted to earn as much as possible to help raise their standards of living. He is only 18 years old, with an enormous talent - last week he became the youngest ever bowler to take 50 test wickets. But on top of this there is the problem of pay. Pakistani cricketers are badly paid. The average pay for a test cricketer is less than £25,000 per year. While officials swan around in luxury the players are the lowest earners in test cricket. There have been many sanctimonious comments from England and Australian players getting about £1 million per year. The disparity in pay is ridiculous. This does not excuse fixing play but it does become an issue. What is a little bit more corruption in a country riddled with corruption? It may be that the bowlers have been threatened with violence against themselves or their families if they did not comply. The big problem for the game is that if there is deliberate bowling of no-balls, what else is not what it appears to be? There have been allegations that one of the matches against Australia last year was fixed - when Pakistan contrived to lose from a seemingly unassailable position. Who knows?
More comments on other silly stories later.
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