Bad, Sad and Ugly

The Pakistani cricket team hardly have the cleanest hands in world sport. There have been plenty of previous accusations of ball tampering and match fixing in the. Those, however, don't make these allegations any less serious or shocking.

The first serious accusation arose in 1994 when Mark Waugh and Shane Warne reported that Salim Malik, then captain of Pakistan, had offered them bribes to perform badly during a game. Later, both Malik and Ata-ur Rehman were found guilty of match fixing. Then in 2006 on a tour in England, Inzamam ul-Haq's side were accused of ball tampering and subsequently refused to return to the field yielding the game to England. More recently Pakistan lost all four games in their series in Australia prompting the ICC's anti-corruption unit to investigate and the Pakistani Cricket Board to suspend Yousuf, Younus Khan, Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan.

The latest allegations involve Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif, Kamran Akmal and the captain, Salman Butt. Amir and Asif are alledged to have deliberately bowled three no balls between them. Far more seriously in my opinion though, are the allegations of Pakistan having made plans to throw two of the ODIs which would be a genuine match fixing offence.

This is certainly bad news for cricket which has been trying to shed its reputation of involvement with match fixing and corruption. In 2000 the ICC set up an anti-corruption unit and were said to be delighted with the results it produced, in partnership with the Indian Cricket Board, in removing much of the match fixing and spot bet organising networks in India and in other areas of the world. This latest case proves that spot fixing and maybe even match fixing haven't completely left cricket. Of course, this is just one case and without being too fear mongering and Daily Mailesque, we don't know whether these kind of arrangements are taking place more often. The recent arrests of Essex players, Danish Kaneria, also a very successful Pakistani spin bowler, and Mervyn Westfield prove that this is not a phenomenon resigning itself to history.

Whilst this news is shocking it is, in my opinion, mostly sad. The new Pakistani captain, Salman Butt, was proving himself to be steering Pakistan in the right direction. He still has a lot to learn and Pakistan still have a long way to go but they have a team of genuinely talented young players and could have moulded themselves into an extremely competitive cricketing side. Asif is already known as an extremely talented bowler and currently sits at number three in the ICC test bowler's rankings. Arguably the saddest victim of this saga though is Mohammed Amir, an up and coming 18 year old bowler who clearly has great talent. It takes a real gift to be the youngest ever person to take 50 test match wickets and it can only be considered a tragedy that his future career, if indeed he has one, will be tarnished by these events.

There is also an element of sadness in the fact that the heroic knocks from Jonathan Trott and Stuart Broad will be forever overshadowed by the possibility of cheating. Indeed the achievements of the entire England team in winning the series and playing, at times, extremely well may also be forgotten.

There's no doubt that the consequences for any proven guilt must be extremely harsh. I am willing to go as far to say that a lifetime ban from international cricket would be an appropriate course of action. In the short term I am inclined to agree with Michael Vaughan in saying that the upcoming ODIs and T20 games should be cancelled. Sadly, because of the ECB's obsession with cricket becoming the equivalent of oil in terms of its money making ability, this will not happen.

On this basis it is essential that Butt, Amir, Akmal and Asif do not take any further part in the following series. The latest news states that Butt, Amir and Asif will be left out for the first game at least, but there has been very little mention of Akmal. He was accused of deliberately dropping catches in the 2nd test in Sydney after Pakistan looked certain to win the match by a large margin. Pakistan ended up collapsing in the final innings having allowed Australia to post a respectable second innings score.

This kind of thing cannot happen in cricket. It brings the sport in disrepute and cons millions of cricket fans out of their money, allowing them to believe they're watching a real competitive game. I don't necessarily believe that this is happening all the time, in fact I think it is extremely rare, but what instances do exist must be found and stopped. In fairness to the ICC they have already put in a lot of time and effort resulting in many of the fixing cartels being stopped. I hope we won't see anything like this again but sadly the financial draw may be too tempting. Let us set an example with harsh punishments for those responsible and preserve the genuine thrill of a competitive game of cricket.

To drop or not to drop?

Of late, a lot of attention has been given to the failings of one time England sensation and probably our Cricket team's only household name, Kevin Pietersen. Some have considered his recent slump to be worthy of a spell in the sidelines, others consider this to be a momentary lapse and can see his next big knock just around the corner. For me though, his lack of runs gives England an opportunity to test out some other options.

Kevin Pietersen was once a formidable cricketer, and may still prove to be again in the future. He became the fastest ever batsman to reach 1000 and 2000 runs in ODI cricket and the fastest ever to reach 5000 test match runs in terms of time taken. Some of his centuries have been match winners as well, the most significant is perhaps his maiden century against Australia during the 2005 ashes. That was a long time ago though and he has not managed to score a century in a test match since March 2009 and since November 2008 in ODIs.

So what options do the ECB have? They could drop him, which would be a brave decision. Usually being dropped would involve going back to the county and gaining some confidence there, sadly for Pietersen though, Hampshire have made it clear that he is not very welcome there and so would be unlikely to get much time on the field. Alternatively he could spend some time with the Lions but this would very much be a demotion in his eyes and probably hinder any chance of building confidence. Of course the last resort, and the most likely, is to leave Pietersen in the squad.

If he were to be dropped there are a number of options for replacement. First, it is important to consider Ian Bell. He is injured at the moment but was in form before he broke his little toe. I would be very surprised if he wasn't in the squad for the ashes but is it time for him to take over at number 4 in the batting order. There is also Ravi Bopara, who was given a chance to shine for England but after a sensational three centuries in his first three matches, he fell to three ducks against Australia in 2009. They could promote Eoin Morgan up the order, but that may be a little premature having only played one match. Perhaps, if he goes on to produce more performances against Pakistan then there could be a case.

As I have said, it would take a brave selection committee to drop Pietersen but I believe it is a necessary decision. It is important to show each player that there place in the squad is conditional upon their performances. It is also important that we take players to Australia who can score runs and put in the big performances we require if we are to have any success on such unfamiliar wickets. Ultimately the ECB have to decide between the future success of English cricket or maintaining the celebrity of the team. I fear they will make the wrong decision.