Ashes masking cricket's ugly side

Graeme Swann and Matt Prior celebrate a moment of joy in the Ashes. Pic: Sarah Reed Source: Sarah Reed / News Limited

THE history, tradition and pulling power of Ashes contests camouflages the fragile state of cricket in most other countries and the sorry state of its administration.

Then there is the game's dark underworld, which continues inducing players into match and spot fixing despite the many millions of dollars spent over the years on the International Cricket Council's largely invisible anti-corruption unit.

Contrast the opening day of the second Test in Adelaide and its near sell-out crowd at a spectacular new venue with what took place at the University Oval in Dunedin on Thursday.

As the once mighty West Indies were forced to follow-on by a particularly modest New Zealand team in front of a meagre crowd, NZ Cricket chief executive David White responded to reports that former international players were being investigated by the ICC's ACU for alleged corruption. No players have been charged with any offence.

NZ cricketer Lou Vincent, pictured handballing a football, is under investigation by the ICC. Source: News Limited

The players under investigation, Chris Cairns, Lou Vincent and Daryl Tuffey, all played together in the privately run and now defunct Indian Cricket League (ICL) Twenty20 tournament for the Chandigarh Lions.

It was superseded by the Indian Premier League (IPL), run by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

The IPL's first commissioner, Lalit Modi, who later fell out badly with the BCCI, was successfully sued by Cairns in London's High Court after accusing the former Kiwi all-rounder of corruption on Twitter. Cairns was awarded almost $200,000 damages.

He was commentating on the Test in Dunedin on Thursday but left the ground once his name became public.

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The ICL and IPL have been dogged by allegations of corruption.

Earlier this year former Indian fast bowler Sreesanth and three domestic Indian players were found guilty of corruption in the IPL following a BCCI investigation, while two other players were found guilty of failing to report approaches from illegal bookmakers.

The players were amongst 39 people arrested by Delhi police on corruption charges, with most believed to be illegal bookmakers.

Also arrested was the son-in-law of BCCI president N.Srinivasan.

In a massive conflict of interest Srinivasan is also owner of IPL franchise the Chennai Super Kings although his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan ran it.

Chris Cairns is swamped by the media after being named as a player under investigation for fixing. Photo: Geoff Dale Source: Getty Images

In Dunedin White dead-batted a tense, impromptu media conference, claiming he could not comment because it was an ongoing ICC investigation.

"We have been aware of this investigation for a number of months and we are shocked and surprised by the allegations," White said.

"Shockedand surprised" appeared to reinforce the perception that cricket's corruption is somehow a sub-continental problem, which of course it is not.

The first head of the ACU, former London police chief Lord Condon, identified India as the engine room of match-fixing and betting in his inaugural report 13 years ago.

Yet the tentacles stretch everywhere.

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We may have been shocked and surprised in 1999 when it was exposed that the then Australian Cricket Board had secretly fined Shane Warne and Mark Waugh for selling information to illegal bookmakers five years earlier. There was no allegation of match-fixing against Warne and Waugh.

We may have been shocked in 2000 when a cornered Hansie Cronje admitted to match-fixing and his illegal Indian bookmaker later gave police a list of prominent players from around the world he claimed to have dealt with.

Nothing was proved against those players.

But more than a decade on no one should be shocked and surprised these latest allegations.

The shock and surprise will be if the ICC's ACU actually does something substantial.

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