When a journalist quizzed Indian Cricket Team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni about match fixing he termed it as the worst allegation that can be leveled against a cricketer during his career. None of them bothers or can be applied to pakistan cricketers as they continue to defy the faith of millions of their supporters. So when a UK based newspaper carried a sting operation on a man who was a main joint in the match fixing syndicate, a box full of shocks and surprises came through. The fixed whose name is Majeed Mazhar named few pakistan cricketers in his nexus and also explained the process of the latest trend in cricket, the spot fixing to the undercover reporter.



Spot fixing in contrast to match fixing most of the time does not affect the outcome of the match. The fixers or bookies as we call them will approach a player and ask him to ball an extra ball or to play out a particular over. For e.g. this bookies will decide that a player will bowl a wide in his second ball of the over or a batsman will play out a maiden in a test match.This type of fixing is extremely difficult to get caught unlike a match which is completely fixed can be easily caught in suspicion. Due to their financial hiccups, Pakistan players are mostly vulnerable to this offers. Spot fixing is in the cricket circuit for a decade now and in the last two years it has really picked up like a wild fire. Earlier this year London Police questioned Pakistan leg spinner Danish Kaneria and some Essex cricketers in connection with a spot fixing allegation. They were let off though in a few days after the allegation was not proved.



Who can blame these players, most of them come from poor background, their country's state is in shambles and almost all of the heading politicians are involved in some or other scams and corruption allegations. This also includes their own president, Mr Sardari who is in a sea of
allegation of corruption from head to toe. So when the country's president is leading the way of big corruption it is not surprising that a small upcoming cricketer like Aamir decides to make a
small wrong deed. Mazhar also named Mohammed Asif and Salman Butt in the scandal. he even called Butt as its ring leader. Two young budding players Umar Amin and Wahab Riyaz also was caught on camera receiving money filled jackets. The bookie also added that Salman Butt, who is the current captain of the test side is the ring leader and it is him who controls the players.


What is the choice for the players like Mohammed Aamir, a cricketer who was almost sure to win the icc emerging player of the year to not to involve in this conspiracy. He is only a upcoming cricketer who is just landed his foot in the arena. If the captain himself comes up to him and ask him to bowl a deliberate no ball what will the poor guy do? To listen to the captain and get the reward or to defy his captain and get the boot. Surely he must have followed the latter. It is
sad that a young bowler of his caliber is involved in this fiasco which might end his career as an international cricketer forever. He might also miss the lucrative offers from the IPL and other tournaments which could have earned him millions of bucks in the future. We all know that Mohammed Asif is not a person with a clean image. He earlier was involved in a brawl with Shoaib Akhthar during a tournament. It was only ironic that he was later caught in a dope test along with the same man a little after. He also was detained in UAE when he was caught possessing drugs. His Ex-girlfriend has now accused him as a serial match fixer. Surely more skeletons are ready to roll from the closet of Asif in the coming days. He was also in regular touch with bookies. Next in the line of fire is wicket keeper Kamran Akmal. Akmal was earlier in suspicion of deliberatly dropping catches during the controversial sydney test which for every one to see fixed. Pakistan lost the match from a dominating position and each member of that team was under suspicion for throwing the match. Akmal himself dropped four catches in that single match.



The biggest problem of the Pakistan Cricket Board is that it is not an elected body. It is a body nominated by the pakistan government and that is why it is so disorganized. For a country which is already gripped by internal terror strikes by various jihad forces and natural calamities like floods and earthquake cricket is not a island. Yet cricket is the only thing that makes the Pakistanis forget all their woes and desperations. Sadly though they are never paid their due by
their cricketers or the administrators. They are also robbed of seeing international cricket at home since all the countries have refused to tour Pakistan after the terror strike on Sri Lankan team and the officials. No one in their regular mind will tour Pakistan now and that is the reason they were stripped as co-hosts for the next world cup in 2011. The tournament which was originally stated to be host by the four sub continent teams is now being hosted without pakistan and all the pakistan matches have been rescheduled to Sri Lanka. It is high time that the PCB stops acting like bunches of buffoon’s and concentrate in the resurrection of the game in pakistan. All the bans and the fines that the PCB give nowadays is a joke because everybody knows that they will be revoked within a few days. Unless the system is changed nothing can be done for cricket in Pakistan. What Pakistan sadly misses though is a strong leader or a role model to whom which they might look at. All the current and past lots of Pakistan cricketers are involved in some or other problems. They had only one leader in the past and that was Imran Khan, sadly he is into politics now and is in the opposition. His views are constantly rejected and criticized by the PCB. It is high time that the PCB now corrects themselves .ICC also must act tough now and must be proactive. But from the look of current proceedings they are in no mood for that. The anti corruption unit which the icc set up to investigate the matches are also filled with retired police officers and not professionals. So the allegation that the ICC is a toothless spineless body is somewhat coming through.

The real source of the money that the bookies get are from the mafia groups operating in the middle east and Pakistan. Many suspect that Davood Ibrahim, India’s most wanted criminal is one of the masterminds of this syndicate. It is a joke that Pakistan’s all time great Javed Miandad has married his son to Davood’s daughter. So the nexus between the mafia and Pakistan cricket is quite evident and clear. India too is not far away from these illegal activities. In fact India is the most cricket crazy country in the world and naturally most of the bookmakers will be operating from here. If you remember Hansie cronje named an Indian Mukesh Gupta as his main bookie contact in his confession when the biggest match fixing scandal broke out in 2000. Cronje admitted of offering bribe to Gibbs, Boje, Strydom and Williams to underperform during their tour of India. Cronje was banned for life and others also got small bans and fines. He also informed that it was then Indian captain Mohammed Azharuddin who introduced him to Gupta. Azhar was banned too along with Ajay Jadeja. Many Pakistan players like Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Salim Malik and Ata ur Rehman was also under the scanner but only Malik and Rehman got life bans which interestingly was revoke by the PCB few years later.

What will happen to these cricketers?Are they guilty? Will the one day series go on?All these questions will be answered in a few days time. But whatever is the verdict of the Scotland Yard and the icc this fixing syndicate is like a cancer in cricket which is eating this gentleman’s game slowly. If we don’t eradicate it quickly this will be destroy the game permanently and that is the biggest nightmare a big cricket fan like me will get.