Now is the time for the cricketers of the world to unite. They need to climb the nearest tall building and shout at the top of their collective voices that they are innocent, that the game they have always played is pure and that they will do all they can to keep it so.
Ten years ago it was extraordinary how reticent the players implicated by Hansie Cronje in the match-fixing scandal were to defend themselves. Instead of aggressively counter-attacking in a bid to preserve honour and reputation, most preferred to lay low.
It was explained in a number of ways: loyalty to Cronje and fear of the unknown were two. But while they sat back and waited for the storm to pass, there was always the danger of a third reason surfacing. Maybe, people said, they knew a bit more than they let on.
Now, a decade later, the same doubts are bobbing to the surface of the game and the people who were lured back to watch and support the game after years of mistrust are unlikely to be persuaded a second time. Those who administer and play the professional game must be proactive in protecting it. The time to keep your head down and mind your own business has gone. Cricket people need active reassurance.
England captain Andrew Strauss led the way this week with an unbridled counter-attack against Pakistan Cricket Board chairperson Ijaz Butt, one of the biggest buffoons ever to have held office in any part of the cricket-playing world. Had Butt’s claims that several England players were paid “large amounts of money” to lose the third one-day at the Oval been made by somebody who enjoyed even a small amount of respect or integrity within the game, Strauss’s threat to sue would have gone a long way towards restoring supporters’ faith.
The English Cricket Board’s demand for an apology from Butt smacks more of English pomposity than a sincere attempt to tackle the rumour and innuendo that are eating away at the game. But Strauss’s seething, spitting anger and unconcealed contempt for those implicated in any form of match-fixing struck right to the core of what supporters need to see and hear to be convinced.
It is time to show some passion, even anger
Now South Africa’s players must follow suit. It is no longer good enough merely to be innocent of any wrong-doing — that innocence needs to be shared with the current and future generations of supporters. It is time to show some passion, even anger.
When the Proteas set off for Dubai to play Pakistan after the Zimbabwe series they should do so with a parting warning that they will not be party to a “bent” game and will take whatever measures necessary to ensure that they are not even innocently involved, let alone implicated, in anything resembling match- or spot-fixing.
English contempt has not been reserved exclusively for the Pakistan team and its board this week, however. If the Champions League had received sparse coverage in that country, it would be understandable given the parochial nature of its media. But it has received no coverage at all, barring a few throwaway column lines in which it has been referred to as “meaningless” and “irrelevant”.
How peculiar, then, that it was showered with praise as an event last year and shown live on Sky television when two English counties participated? But because this year’s event clashed with the end of the English domestic season, they refused to allow their T20 winners to participate.
The truth is the Champions League and other domestic tournaments represent the future of cricket. Yes, not just of T20 cricket, but of all cricket. Without these tournaments (and there will be even more in the years to come) there will be nothing in the future. First-class competitions will be pared down to the bare minimum everywhere, even in England, and in less than five years the global game will be based around a calendar agreed upon by ICC member nations to ensure that their domestic T20 competitions don’t clash. Then they’ll fit Test matches and tours around them.
The nature of the Champions League has already had a huge impact on its audience.
There was more pain and anguish inside the Wanderers at the Lions’ demise on Tuesday than for a Proteas’ defeat. The effort showing on the faces of young players from Sri Lanka and New Zealand has been a joyous reminder of what it means to play domestic cricket but on an international stage. No team has captured that spirit more than the Warriors, whose transformation from ugly duckling to Cinderella may have taken five years but has been worth the wait.
The IPL teams, of course, look silly and out of place among the seven proud, “real” teams and the tournament would be improved dramatically if they weren’t able to pick and choose their players from among the ranks of the opposition — but that’s a small price to pay given that there would be no tournament at all without India’s millions.
Let’s just hope all the players in it are clean — and that they let us all know that they are, too.