The Cricket Match-Fixing Scandal

[Sithara007]

So you think that match fixing is done with the knowledge from the higher officials, i think it is highly unlikely. BCCI conducted the IPL in UAE which included Emirates such as Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi and if there is fixing it cannot be isolated to one region. Pakistan players were caught when they were involved in spot fixing in a match in England and the rules are strict as these players has to risk their career and the fortune they can make through cricket.

For the players, there is always a risk of ruining their career. Even those accused of fake charges have lost their career, and Sreesanth is a perfect example. But for the franchise owners, it looks as if they are not risking anything by fixing matches of their own team. Even if they are caught, the powerful people will come to their rescue, like we saw in 2015. IPL betting is very widespread even now, and involves billions of USD every season. But I am not sure whether the matches are still getting fixed or not. Given the fact that those who were accused in the 2015 scandal are still owning the teams, I will not discount any such possibility.

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[madnessteat]

In some cases people are sentenced to several years in prison for match-fixing, add to that various disqualifications and we'll see that the penalties are severe enough to stop this unlawful and shameful activity. Only it's enough for people with brains. There's always a moron who will still be doing it.

In my opinion it is very difficult to prove that a player or his management was involved in a match-fixing operation. In addition, there is often corruption in law enforcement and minimal publicity plays into the hands of these types of scammers. Maybe that's why we don't see so many high-profile match-fixing cases.

[smyslov]

In my opinion it is very difficult to prove that a player or his management was involved in a match-fixing operation. In addition, there is often corruption in law enforcement and minimal publicity plays into the hands of these types of scammers. Maybe that's why we don't see so many high-profile match-fixing cases.

They know how to bribe the right people and they know how to keep it secret it's part of the plan, the worst thing is someone become a whistle blower, there's even a threat if they come out and tell it all, hiding it and keeping all involve quiet are part of the plan, if they failed to do this, all involved will be in trouble.

[bryant.coleman]

In my opinion it is very difficult to prove that a player or his management was involved in a match-fixing operation. In addition, there is often corruption in law enforcement and minimal publicity plays into the hands of these types of scammers. Maybe that's why we don't see so many high-profile match-fixing cases.

Why is it so difficult to prove? If a player or a franchise owner is receiving money that he can't explain, that should be taken as an evidence, right? Recently Heath Streak of Zimbabwe was handed out suspension, after it was found that he received 2 BTC from a bookie, in order to fix some of the franchise T20 matches. All the evidence was there, in the form of Bitcoin transactions and the logs from the cryptocurrency exchange which was used by Streak to convert these Bitcoins to fiat.

[Pmalek]

These are all words, guesses, assumptions and coincidences. If there are facts, then where are the criminal cases and court decisions?

I don't know how the affair ended. I didn't do any research about the aftermath of the revelations. Someone who follows cricket with a bit more passion would certainly be able to give you better answers.

This is what I know:

The Internationa Cricket Council asked Al Jazeera to send them all the documented "evidence" they gathered so they can investigate the case. I have no idea what the result of those investigations were and if there were any at all. Again, someone more interested in the sport should be able to tell you more.

Make sure you read the other posts in this thread because several members mentioned that certain players and clubs were banned from the sport in different periods of time.

[Vishnu.Reang]

^^^^

@Pmalek. I would assume that most of the users here don't have an idea about the game of cricket. That is natural, given the fact that it is a sport that is mostly confined to South Asia (especially India, Pakistan, Bangladesh). If cricket is being played in other countries, it is mostly done by expats from the South Asian region. Now for those who are not familiar with cricket - match fixing is very prevalent in this sport. In football, FIFA has managed to almost wipeout match fixing. But the corresponding governing body has failed to do the same in cricket. And that is partly because the governing body itself is being headed by corrupt people like Greg Barclay and Sharad Pawar.

[Pmalek]

@Pmalek. I would assume that most of the users here don't have an idea about the game of cricket.

Thank you for your inputs!

Based on your name, I can safely assume that you are from one of the regions where cricket is very popular, am I right? Are you familiar with this scandal that the Al Jazeera reporters stumbled upon? Were there any investigations carried out by governing bodies, and were any of the involved players or staff members suspended or jailed?

I would be interested in hearing about it from someone who absolutely knows what he is talking about. 

[Vishnu.Reang]

@Pmalek. I would assume that most of the users here don't have an idea about the game of cricket.

Thank you for your inputs!

Based on your name, I can safely assume that you are from one of the regions where cricket is very popular, am I right? Are you familiar with this scandal that the Al Jazeera reporters stumbled upon? Were there any investigations carried out by governing bodies, and were any of the involved players or staff members suspended or jailed?

I would be interested in hearing about it from someone who absolutely knows what he is talking about. 

Some of the claims are too outlandish to be true, such as the involvement of the English players in 2016. But recently Heath Streak was banned for fixing some matches during the period mentioned here. Also, the article states this:

He was introduced to other match-fixers who are ex-cricket players who played for their national teams

Heath Streak perfectly fits the description. Now there are some articles about his involvement:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/apr/14/heath-streak-handed-eight-year-ban-for-breaching-icc-anti-corruption-code
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/heath-streak-handed-eight-year-ban-for-breaching-icc-anti-corruption-code-1258953

Now here is another incident, which corresponds to the period mentioned in this article (this time in Sri Lanka):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_cricket_pitch_fixing_and_betting_scandal

This was going on for many years, before coming to light in 2018.

[ene1980]

~
For the players, there is always a risk of ruining their career. Even those accused of fake charges have lost their career, and Sreesanth is a perfect example. But for the franchise owners, it looks as if they are not risking anything by fixing matches of their own team. Even if they are caught, the powerful people will come to their rescue, like we saw in 2015. IPL betting is very widespread even now, and involves billions of USD every season. But I am not sure whether the matches are still getting fixed or not. Given the fact that those who were accused in the 2015 scandal are still owning the teams, I will not discount any such possibility.

Once a gambler always a gambler, these people who never cared about their reputation or the integrity of the team gambled and yet they are able to keep the team and i think they got a much lesser punishment than the players who were caught during that period and Sreesanth was also caught during that period if i am not wrong along with other players and they never played cricket after that while the owners who might have forced their players got out of the mess easily .

It is possible that some of the matches are fixed and until we hear from the media or these information are leaked we are not going to find that out and seriously they are disrespecting the fans who are wasting their time and money to watch the game.

[Sithara007]

Once a gambler always a gambler, these people who never cared about their reputation or the integrity of the team gambled and yet they are able to keep the team and i think they got a much lesser punishment than the players who were caught during that period and Sreesanth was also caught during that period if i am not wrong along with other players and they never played cricket after that while the owners who might have forced their players got out of the mess easily .

It is possible that some of the matches are fixed and until we hear from the media or these information are leaked we are not going to find that out and seriously they are disrespecting the fans who are wasting their time and money to watch the game.

Completely agreed. I still remember the incident that once occurred in the United States. The owner of one of the NBA teams (Donald Sterling, who owned the LA Clippers) was banned from the game for life and was forced to sell his franchise after it was revealed that he made some racist remarks. Unfortunately such strong actions are not possible with the IPL, since the franchise owners are too powerful. Only the players are being made scapegoats and the unsuspecting viewers still watch the matches thinking that they are real.

[vennali]

~snip~

Thanks for the insight. I just noticed this article is from 2018. In India, there was a cricketer(Sreesanth) who was caught fixing a match and was banned for almost lifetime. There have been cricketers from India who have been at least accused of fixing(Md. Azharuddin). It is very hard to catch those signals I suppose as they could very well be interpreted as natural things to do. Like removing their helmet or gloves to dry themselves, or a change in bat. Sreesanth was caught due to wire tapping of phones and revealed the signal was that he'd put his hand drying towel, which is usually on the players back, he'd put it up forward in his 2nd over of his spell as indication that he'd bowl poorly.

I hoped there would be some names involved in the article but there werent and I dont think they could have arrested the players on that regard unless they had and audio or visual confirmation that they player had actually accepted to fix. Since bowling poorly could be natural as well.

[bryant.coleman]

^^^ Not entirely accurate. Sreesanth was made a scapegoat and he was acquitted by the court. He fell out with some of the big names within the BCCI at that time, and that was the reason why these fake charges were framed against him, and his career was ruined. On the other hand, Mohammed Azharuddin was convicted of match fixing and he admitted to those charges. In your post, you are claiming that Sreesanth "was involved in match fixing" while Azhar was "just accused of match fixing". Actually it is the other way around. And Azhar went on to become a politician with the opposition party, after being proven his competence in fixing matches.

[robelneo]

 

How do the games get fixed?
 
A fixed match is confirmed on the day it’s played. The organizers tell the reporter that players are advised to make a signal that the fix is on. The sign is agreed before, and it can be anything. The player puts on a pair of sunglasses or a headband, he takes a pause to remove or fix his shin pads, etc. When the syndicate sees the sign, they have final confirmation the player will do as agreed. The match betting then starts.
 
They explain to the reporter that they are dealing with a small number of wealthy businessmen who use the insider information provided to them by the criminal organization to make up to $1.5 million per match.   
 
In a different kind of scheme, the match-fixers discuss how they bribe groundsmen to manipulate the cricket pitch to be better suited for either bowlers or batsmen. If the pitch gets “fixed” for bowlers, the batsmen will get ejected more quickly, and the match won’t end in a draw. One team will win. The betting syndicate lays a draw and bets against the game ending in a draw.
 

So they have a system to fix the game, this is so well organized, that you need a whistleblower to come out and exposed it, the $1.5 million per match is so huge that the organizations that manipulated the game will do everything to keep the game-fixing secret I don't think game-fixing is over in that region, as long as there is big money to be made and there are corrupt players and officials it will still exist, in our country basketball is very popular and we have a very strict regulation but still there's game-fixing because there's huge money to be made here if they can keep it well organize.

[Lorence.xD]

Whenever I hear match fixing in cricket I remember Hansie Cronje, the ex south african captain. What a good batsman he was but everything got ruined after it was found that he was part of a big match fixing syndicate. Unfortunately he died in a air crash before big names could have come out.

That's what most potential whistleblowers do, they sometimes die or disappear after the whole scandal unfolds and they could be the key for taking down the whole organization, this person isn't the last one that's going to suffer the same fate, match fixing is a serious money making business and they don't want people to meddle with their money making.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Whenever I hear match fixing in cricket I remember Hansie Cronje, the ex south african captain. What a good batsman he was but everything got ruined after it was found that he was part of a big match fixing syndicate. Unfortunately he died in a air crash before big names could have come out.

That's what most potential whistleblowers do, they sometimes die or disappear after the whole scandal unfolds and they could be the key for taking down the whole organization, this person isn't the last one that's going to suffer the same fate, match fixing is a serious money making business and they don't want people to meddle with their money making.

Cronje was just small fish. He was probably indulging in match fixing for the first time, and he got caught. The masterminds were Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja. The bookies contacted the South African players through these guys. Cronje gave a statement that Mohammad Azharuddin was the intermediary when he met with the bookie Mukesh Gupta. Now Gupta was also a lower ring operative, and Dawood Ibrahim was the real mastermind of this operation. Rumors are that Dawood Ibrahim got Cronje killed for speaking out against Azharuddin. 

[Lorence.xD]

~

Cronje was just small fish. He was probably indulging in match fixing for the first time, and he got caught. The masterminds were Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja. The bookies contacted the South African players through these guys. Cronje gave a statement that Mohammad Azharuddin was the intermediary when he met with the bookie Mukesh Gupta. Now Gupta was also a lower ring operative, and Dawood Ibrahim was the real mastermind of this operation. Rumors are that Dawood Ibrahim got Cronje killed for speaking out against Azharuddin. 

It doesn't matter whether he is a smaller fish because anyone can be a whistleblower. Those rumors, I am pretty has some truth in it because Cronje dying after ratting out the heads can't pass as a coincidence.

[Silberman]

Unfortunately this is the sad reality of many sports, the mafia can be extremely effective to get cooperation from athletes, after all if they do not cooperate they can always go against them or their family and most people will take the money even if they do not want...

The problem with taking a bribe, is that they won't stop after only one time. If you help them make money once, they'll have you by your balls and force you to comply to their demands all the time, otherwise they'll expose you, destroy your career, and have you banned. Some players probably don't think that far ahead, and think why not do it once for an unimportant tournament. After doing it once, it turns into a nightmare.  

True, which is yet another reason why I think this is way more common than what we could think, once you accept a bribe then those criminals know they have you and there is no way for you to escape their control, it is such a shame because even if I am not a fan of the sport to think there is so much cheating going on around the world of sports is discouraging as one of the reasons people like sports is that the competition has been made fair for both sides and we just want to see who is the best under those circumstances.

[Vishnu.Reang]

OK guys.. so a few hours back, we had official response from the International Cricket Council (ICC), which is the global governing body for the sport of cricket. As expected, they have downplayed the allegations.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/icc-says-al-jazeera-s-allegations-implausible-concludes-investigation-1263319

The ICC has concluded a three-year long investigation into allegations aired on a TV documentary in 2018 linking England and Australia players being involved in spot-fixing in two Test matches in India, in 2016 and 2017, calling them "implausible". The ICC's anti-corruption unit (ACU) has also cleared five individuals, including two former cricketers, of any charges due to "insufficient evidence".

A few of the big names were mentioned in the documentary, including international players Dilhara Lokuhettige of Sri Lanka and Pakistan player Hasan Raza. They will face no disciplinary action, either from the ICC, or from the regional boards.

[2double0]

It is not something new to the table, Op. Matches were being fixed since the sport was born because every player has a weakness and these bookies or parties who don't want a specific team to win, bribe players either through money, girls or even drugs. You should watch an Indian web series called 'Inside Edge' because it has all the facts you should look into, and it is also related to gambling, but a corporate (insider) level gambling, not what we do.

[Sithara007]

It is not something new to the table, Op. Matches were being fixed since the sport was born because every player has a weakness and these bookies or parties who don't want a specific team to win, bribe players either through money, girls or even drugs. You should watch an Indian web series called 'Inside Edge' because it has all the facts you should look into, and it is also related to gambling, but a corporate (insider) level gambling, not what we do.

Match fixing is a relatively new phenomenon, at least as far as cricket is concerned. It existed for many decades, but large scale match fixing started only when underworld gangs from India and Pakistan started their activities from UAE and the other Gulf nations (cricket match fixing is still under their monopoly). And given the popularity of cricket in the Indian subcontinent, and due to the fact that legalized gambling is not possible in India, the criminals soon seized on the opportunity and made it a multi-billion Dollar business.