England vs. Pakistan

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

RE: England vs. Pakistan

Salmon · Tennis legend

I remember seeing it Live and I don't think that I've ever seen a no ball that big.

This'll be ugly. Either a lot of banning or an epic case of libel (and maybe both).

The tour may not go on, I'm afraid. Whatever they do, I hope that the Test doesn't get erased off the books or something - that'll be extremely unfair on Broad and Trott.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Not Aamer, please.... Cricket will be the biggest loser if he's not playing.

indiana · Tennis legend

Oh dear, does look bad cry

But yes, the BBC report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11122388 does indicate that it was the News of the World that set things in motion.

In my view this paper has on a number of occasions appeared to cause offences or alleged offences to be committed that would not otherwise have been committed by taking advantage of the stupid or naive. They will no doubt claim they are doing good, but some might consider that their motives and morality are very questionable.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Majeed also bragged of knowing one of the world's top tennis players and claimed he had arranged for Salman Butt to be in pictures with pop stars and a world famous US rapper.

Thought I'd post this... not that knowing a top tennis player is anything shady!!

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

I agree the News of the world has been the instigator in many of their previous undercover reports, but I don't think its the case this time.

They claim the middle man & team have running the scam for 2.5 years and the team had already fixed many matches and have money stashed in swiss bank accounts. The undercover reporter was just another client joining an existing scam rather than instigating that the fixing took place.

This indian source has more details

-- Edited by RBBOT on Sunday 29th of August 2010 12:06:49 AM

Salmon · Tennis legend

Wow, just wow.....

The ECB will lose a lot of money if this tour gets cancelled. They'll not even get a replacement because of the Chumps League T20.

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

It gets worse - a new claim from the middle man in the NOTW blog:

I used to go out on the pitch to give the players their drinks. Whenever we couldn't get a wicket I'd have a lump of Vaseline on my hand. Shake their hand. They'd put it on one side of the ball and the ball would suddenly start in-swinging.

I wonder if he was at the oval a few years back...

Salmon · Tennis legend

Hmm, Darrell Hair is surely smiling right now.

Why can England vs. Pakistan never be without controversy?

Gatting and Rana, reverse swing, Afridi dancing on the pitch, Oval 2006 and now this.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yikes, yes looks a hell of a lot bigger than your normal News of the World sting and indeed not instigated by them.

Pakistani cricket was in enough trouble with not being able to play internationally at home and the often hapless organisation and administration, but now ....

A supposed noble new young captain, very good young bowlers, where now ?

-- Edited by indiana on Sunday 29th of August 2010 12:32:46 AM

Ratty · County player

I'm puzzled by how one makes a lot of money out of betting on fixed matches.

In order to bet, you need to find a counterparty to the bet - and why would anyone be so dumb as to be that counterparty?

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

People bet on the outcome of every ball of every match in India, so finding a counter party isn't hard.

In some ways I'm glad this betting on small events like single balls exists - if it didn't there would be more likelihood that the crooks would fix the overall match result instead.

Salmon · Tennis legend

I have never seen such a subdued atmosphere at a cricket match.

Great conduct from the crowd at Lord's, it must be said.

It's a bit sad that this win will not be celebrated like it should be. Winning by an innings and 225 runs after being 102/7 is once in a generation stuff.

Ratty · County player

RBBOT wrote:

People bet on the outcome of every ball of every match in India, so finding a counter party isn't hard.

Sorry to seem dumb, but how does this work in practice?

Assume that I have paid for the knowledge that a bowler will bowl a no-ball on the 3rd ball of the 3rd over. I need to find someone to bet a lot of money against me that this will NOT be a no-ball.

I can't rely on anyone taking a spur-of-the-moment bet in the 30 seconds after the 2nd ball of the 3rd over, if I were to say "I say chaps, fancy a flutter that the next ball will be a no-ball".

So I have to do it well in advance, and why the hell would anyone apart from someone who is a complete moron, or mentally ill, make a bet that is a racing certainty to be a fix?

Weird .....

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Ratty wrote:

RBBOT wrote:

People bet on the outcome of every ball of every match in India, so finding a counter party isn't hard.
Sorry to seem dumb, but how does this work in practice?

Assume that I have paid for the knowledge that a bowler will bowl a no-ball on the 3rd ball of the 3rd over. I need to find someone to bet a lot of money against me that this will NOT be a no-ball.

I can't rely on anyone taking a spur-of-the-moment bet in the 30 seconds after the 2nd ball of the 3rd over, if I were to say "I say chaps, fancy a flutter that the next ball will be a no-ball".

So I have to do it well in advance, and why the hell would anyone apart from someone who is a complete moron, or mentally ill, make a bet that is a racing certainty to be a fix?

Weird .....

The way I understand it, it's not so much that you know it will be a no-ball that is where the fix comes in, but what the implications of that will be.

Every on-line bookie offers an under/over on the number of runs in each over, and if you know that there will be a no-ball in the over, then the chance of the number of runs being over is increased, especially in the one-day game with 2 runs for a no-ball and the free-hit.

The actual no-ball stuff is a red-herring almost in my opinion. As the NOTW were a new client to this, the no-balls were not designed to make a huge amount of money for anyone but just to show the NOTW what they can do. These three no-balls are fairly irrelevant in the course of the match, but they prove that they are trustworthy in regards to being able to fix certain occasions in the match, and from then on, you can bet big on whatever they know would be fixed in the future.

Obviously the players involved should be viewed as innocent until proven guilty, but the evidence against them looks pretty damning that something dodgy was going on.

I expect the ODI series to go ahead, but obviously anyone who was named in this should not be allowed to play just to retain the integrity of the series.