Post by PeterB on Mar 23, 2007 1:57:35 GMT -4
Those of you in North America may have heard about a sporting event of some sort going on in the Caribbean at the moment. The rest of us in the English speaking world will know that it's the time of the Cricket World Cup. Of course, Canucks on the list should know that Canada is also taking part, and Nederlanders would also know that Holland is taking part.
Sadly, this Cricket World Cup is more likely to be remembered for the death of the coach of Pakistan, Englishman Bob Woolmer, than for who wins it. Especially as the police are treating Woolmer’s death as a murder. Only a couple of days earlier, Pakistan lost its group game to Ireland, guaranteeing that Pakistan won’t be able to proceed to the finals. (In case you weren’t sure, Pakistan losing to Ireland in cricket would be like Ireland losing to Pakistan in soccer, or either country defeating the USA in softball.)
Cricket arouses passions in people around the world which Americans find hard to understand. But understand it or not, the passion exists, particularly in the Indian sub-continent. Leading Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar can only drive his fancy cars around at night, because he gets mobbed if he does it during the day. Australian cricketers had to arm themselves with their cricketing equipment after rioters in the West Indies approached the players’ changeroom. So one possible motive for Woolmer’s murder would be an enraged fan taking his frustration out on the team’s coach.
But the passion for cricket shows in other ways, such as gambling. Several years ago a report by the International Cricket Council confirmed that members of a few major national teams had thrown games in return for payments by Indian bookmakers. Other players made money by giving reports to the bookmakers which would have helped them determine appropriate odds for various matches. It’s possible because of the huge amounts of money which can be made in gambling on cricket – despite their relative poverty, millions of poor people (especially in India) gamble on the results of one-day cricket matches. Players complain about the number of games they’re expected to play, but cricketing authorities are keen to pack in plenty of games because they can be so profitable. The result is a lot of games which have little meaning, increasing player’s vulnerability to the temptation of a quick buck to throw a game here or there. And herein is a second possible motive for Woolmer’s murder – that he and his murderer were on opposite philosophical sides when it came to match fixing.
Lest it be said that match fixing is something for the lesser lights, its most famous victim was the then captain of South Africa, Hansie Cronje, in 2000. Cronje was a poster boy for South African cricket, a country still finding its footing after its return from over 20 years of exile from international cricket due to an apartheid-related boycott. It was particularly shocking that a devout Christian, who wore a WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) wristband, would fall prey to the lures of the bookmakers. Cronje was banned from playing or coaching cricket for life. Yet to many South Africans, he’s still a hero.
But cricket seems to be a peculiarly political sport. The exclusion of South Africa from international cricket from the early 1970s to the early 1990s is one example. And during that period, the South African Cricket Board lured players from around the world on unofficial tours of South Africa, with much more money than they were earning at the time playing officially for their countries, leading to many being banned from playing for their own countries for years at a time. But there are other examples. A few years ago, most of the national squad of Zimbabwe – black and white – resigned in protest at political interference by the Mugabe government in the running of cricket in that country. At the World Cup held in the mid 1990s in India and Sri Lanka, Australia forfeited a group match rather than play in Sri Lanka at a time when the civil war there was particularly violent, despite the government and rebels both guaranteeing the safety of the team. More recently, Scottish authorities had to change the venue of a European Cricket Championship match involving Israel, after finding out that Islamic protesters intended to disrupt the match, due to Israel’s war with Hezbollah.
So if someone says I don’t believe in conspiracy theories, they’re wrong. I certainly believe they’re possible when it comes to cricket.
Sadly, this Cricket World Cup is more likely to be remembered for the death of the coach of Pakistan, Englishman Bob Woolmer, than for who wins it. Especially as the police are treating Woolmer’s death as a murder. Only a couple of days earlier, Pakistan lost its group game to Ireland, guaranteeing that Pakistan won’t be able to proceed to the finals. (In case you weren’t sure, Pakistan losing to Ireland in cricket would be like Ireland losing to Pakistan in soccer, or either country defeating the USA in softball.)
Cricket arouses passions in people around the world which Americans find hard to understand. But understand it or not, the passion exists, particularly in the Indian sub-continent. Leading Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar can only drive his fancy cars around at night, because he gets mobbed if he does it during the day. Australian cricketers had to arm themselves with their cricketing equipment after rioters in the West Indies approached the players’ changeroom. So one possible motive for Woolmer’s murder would be an enraged fan taking his frustration out on the team’s coach.
But the passion for cricket shows in other ways, such as gambling. Several years ago a report by the International Cricket Council confirmed that members of a few major national teams had thrown games in return for payments by Indian bookmakers. Other players made money by giving reports to the bookmakers which would have helped them determine appropriate odds for various matches. It’s possible because of the huge amounts of money which can be made in gambling on cricket – despite their relative poverty, millions of poor people (especially in India) gamble on the results of one-day cricket matches. Players complain about the number of games they’re expected to play, but cricketing authorities are keen to pack in plenty of games because they can be so profitable. The result is a lot of games which have little meaning, increasing player’s vulnerability to the temptation of a quick buck to throw a game here or there. And herein is a second possible motive for Woolmer’s murder – that he and his murderer were on opposite philosophical sides when it came to match fixing.
Lest it be said that match fixing is something for the lesser lights, its most famous victim was the then captain of South Africa, Hansie Cronje, in 2000. Cronje was a poster boy for South African cricket, a country still finding its footing after its return from over 20 years of exile from international cricket due to an apartheid-related boycott. It was particularly shocking that a devout Christian, who wore a WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) wristband, would fall prey to the lures of the bookmakers. Cronje was banned from playing or coaching cricket for life. Yet to many South Africans, he’s still a hero.
But cricket seems to be a peculiarly political sport. The exclusion of South Africa from international cricket from the early 1970s to the early 1990s is one example. And during that period, the South African Cricket Board lured players from around the world on unofficial tours of South Africa, with much more money than they were earning at the time playing officially for their countries, leading to many being banned from playing for their own countries for years at a time. But there are other examples. A few years ago, most of the national squad of Zimbabwe – black and white – resigned in protest at political interference by the Mugabe government in the running of cricket in that country. At the World Cup held in the mid 1990s in India and Sri Lanka, Australia forfeited a group match rather than play in Sri Lanka at a time when the civil war there was particularly violent, despite the government and rebels both guaranteeing the safety of the team. More recently, Scottish authorities had to change the venue of a European Cricket Championship match involving Israel, after finding out that Islamic protesters intended to disrupt the match, due to Israel’s war with Hezbollah.
So if someone says I don’t believe in conspiracy theories, they’re wrong. I certainly believe they’re possible when it comes to cricket.
