Match and Spot-Fixing - a Great Cricket Scandal!

hhs,

What a farce!

The authorities, legal system etc.. are dragging their feet over a court case that could rock the cricketing
world and potentially have a devastating effect on the sport. So, no surprise then.

The excuse given is that due to the high number of professional cricketers who will be called as
witnesses, the quietest time in the world cricket calendar is allegedly October and why October 5th, 2015 has
been offered. Although, this is still a provisional date! Obvious question: We are presently in October 2014, why
not arrange it for now?  Presumably, due to the overstretched and nature of the legal system, it requires a year
to oil the wheels.

So what happens to the primary witness Lou Vincent? He has been in hiding due to, so he claims, death threats
from the Asian underworld. Will Vincent be placed in a witness protection programme for the next year? How
does this work?

www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-2795793/former-new-zealand-captain-chris-cairns-appears-southwark-crown-court-perjury-charge.html

www.radiosport.co.nz/video/video-lou-vincent-part-5-2jul2014
www.radiosport.co.nz/video/video-lou-vincent-part-3-2jul2014

dexc,

That is my point. 

Given the importance of this case, you make sure witnesses are available. You make sure that a case of such magnitude and
importance is given a high priority and not merely dragged on and on. October 5th, 2015 is only provisional.

Whatever your views on Lou Vincent, the two videos show a man seeking redemption. He is very courageous to
come forward and blow the lid on the whole appalling match-fixing scandal that may have gone on for decades but has been
buried by the ICC. Where is the support for Vincent? As he says the issue "is huge" but "the power of good will win."

One just hopes Vincent isn't killed before the case finally comes to court around 2017. Meanwhile, the match-fixing may continue
and certain players and their 'Asian minders' will continue to make a pot of dirty money.

It's kicking off BIG time in India as IPL match-fixing claims from 2013 are under scrutiny. Sadly,
Owais Shah finds himself caught up in the middle.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/30059179

Cricket tweet king Freddie Wilde has his finger on the pulse.

twitter.com/fwildecricket

Meanwhile, Lalit Modi is enjoying himself greatly.

twitter.com/lalitkmodi

edit: Shah has been cleared.

The BBC report gives the impression that Srinivasan was completely cleared of all impropriety. In fact the Mudgal report explicitly states that he knew about an (unnamed) IPL player violating the code of conduct yet took no action about it.

What we have with the BCCI, to a large extent with the ICC, and certainly with FIFA is something that many of these giant sporting cartels have in common: they regard themselves as being too big and too important to the game to admit to any failings. Consider also motor racing, whose governing body dare not bring itself to find a word of censure for Bernie Ecclestone's obscene wealth and his bribery of the official charged with managing the sale of rights to Formula One.

FIFA's concept of Corporate Governance and Ethics is of course to blackguard any of its members who blow the whistle or applaud any whistleblowers. Meanwhile a succession of crooks and chancers, from Modi himelf (not a hero for any self-respecting journo, s and f) through Srinivasan and their dupes in other boards, some of them serial dupes, having already been conned by Ponzi practitioners, continue to espouse noble platitudes about the Spirit of the Game while they have their egos massaged by the supine media.

No wonder the bookies thrive, and will continue to do so, catering to the gullible, exploiting the slow-witted, the greedy and the cynical.

Confirmation that the three banned Pakistanis could have their convictions overturned by the CPS:

www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jan/15/pakistan-spot-fixing-fake-sheikh

Absolute tragedy that the brilliant 18 year old Mohammad Amir has lost five of the best years of his cricketing life to what may well be ruled an unsafe conviction.

It's  a travesty of justice that a naive 18 year old kid was sent to to prison when the infinitely  more venal Sussex cheats Naved Arif and Llou Vincent remain at liberty.

If the conviction is overturned, I hope that Amir sues the ICC for millions, in addition to the compensation he will be due from from the crown.

Amir pleaded guilty from the outset (unlike the other two). But the pleas either way don't  alter the contention  that they were set up and entrapped by a now discredited individual , in which case the CPS must surely now conclude that the convictions are unsafe.

Couldn't give a toss about the other two. But what kind of evil piece of low-life tries to destroy the life of a naive 17/18 year old kid - and then why would the court not take a leninent view of the way in which he was exploited not only by the crooked 'fake sheikh' but by his own captain?

Compared to the criminality of what the Sussex players did, he's an innocent ingenue. Yet he's been punished far more severely.

My compassion for Amir has been unwavering from the day the story broke in the unlamented comic that was the News Of The World and nothing will give me greater pleasure than to see him back in Test cricket in 2015.