Malik, match-fixing and Pak cricket

P. Muraleedharan

After 8-years in the wilderness, Salim Malik is back in cricket, as a Lahore Court lifted the cricket-ban imposed on him by Justice Malik Qayyum in 2000, for his alleged involvement in the match-fixing racket. But, will this rehabilitation of the 45-year-old, one of the best batsmen in the world in his prime, help Pakistan cricket in anyway?

It has one positive fall-out: Match-fixing, the dreaded spectre of which has been haunting the international cricket for well over two decades, is back in the news. This time, as a painful reminder to the dangerous depths into which it had dragged the gentleman’s game in the recent past, and the tremendous ‘scope’ it has in the Twenty20 leagues. If patriotism is not strong enough to keep players away from the lure of the ‘filthy’ lucre, can the professional teams, run by private companies, stop them from falling for bribes to underperform and throw matches? The team owners, whose only god is Mammon, colluding to choreograph each and every move of the match, including the result, as in a WWE bout is another frightening probability! Going by the looks, that day is not too far away!

After the Mohali test, where Australia capitulated uncharacteristically to an aggressive India, one of my friends asked me, “Was the match fixed?” The question really shocked me. But, soon I realized: The impact that the match-fixing scandals has had on the cricket-lovers is so enormous that they suspect a rat even when there is no scope for one! So, for international cricket to come out of the sickening shadow of the ‘for sale’ tag, the ICC will have to devise something ingenious and drastic to lift the game above the reach of fixers, fraudsters and willing traitors. In the present scenario, where even World Cup matches seem pre-determined (Remember the finals of the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbeans, the last overs of which were played out in the dark!), the ICC has a terrible road to traverse to reach cricket to safety!

True, match-fixing is no headache that can be fixed overnight. In such cases, finding evidence is the hardest part. So, even if everybody knows that money has changed hands and that Cricket and Honour have been short-changed in a particular incident, the same cannot be proved most of the time for lack of evidence. How can one distinguish between a poor performance and a deliberately below par one? In cricket, the game of glorious uncertainties, one cannot determine it that easily! But, in the Malik-case, Justice Qayyum had said, "There is clear evidence of match-fixing against Mr Salim Malik." The Justice had recommended life ban and Rs 1 m fine (£12,500) for Malik. It is this ban that has been overturned now.

Malik was the first international cricketer to be banned in connection with match-fixing. It was in 1995 that the allegations on the involvement of Malik in betting syndicates come out into the open. Tim May, Shane Warne and Mark Waugh were the accusers. They alleged that Malik had offered them money to throw the Karachi test match between Australia and Pakistan (The match was won by Pakistan!). Later, in 1998, the Australian Cricket Board admitted that Warne and Waugh were secretly fined for accepting money from an Indian bookmaker during the same Pakistan tour (1994). The famous saying comes to mind: When you point your forefinger at somebody, the other four fingers are pointed at yourself!

During their next tour to South Africa (1995), Rashid Latif and Basit Ali resigned from the Pak team and headed back home, ostensibly, after a clash with Salim Malik, on match-fixing. Salim's ouster was not unexpected then. For, whenever the subject of match-fixing had come up for discussion, his name had figured prominently in them. But for the courage of Rashid Latif and the ‘original’ whistle-blower Sarfraz Nawaz, the dirty drama behind many an ‘unbelievable’ loss by the Pak national team would have remained under wraps. The latter had not spared even the ICC; he had accused that the committee is the fountain-head of the betting-mafia!

International cricketers are not just professionals engaged in a money-making sport. They represent their respective nations. Throwing matches for handsome bribes amount to treachery, there is no doubt on that. Having clean hands won’t do. The players and administrators should be above suspicion too. That is a small price to pay for the big privileges international cricketers enjoy these days. That is, even if Salim Malik is innocent of the charges that were leveled against him, he has sinned by giving more than enough reasons to doubt his integrity.
His rehabilitation would not help in restoring the faith in Pak Cricket, already tarnished by many a scandal, I am afraid.


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