According to this report , IPL tournaments so far have been rife with spot-fixing - that is fixing minor elements of the game - runs in a single over, number of wides bowled etc. The curious part of that article is that the Income Tax department are supposed to have found these crimes. What idiot would be stupid enough to put down 'big wad of cash handed to me by bookie' as a source of income? Backhanders for sportsmen, particularly in a celebrity- and cricket-obsessed culture like India are not rare. They could come from anything like turning up to open someone's new business (not a sponsor, but a 'friend of a friend' arrangement), to being a guest at some devoted fan's dinner party etc. The opportunities are always there, and there will always be people trying to become friends with players and their entourage - that is human nature. This form of match-fixing (and it's not really fixing a match, just a minor element of it) is very hard to prove, but also,
Sadly, the 'recreational' ones are easily available to the young and wealthy.
ReplyDeleteIf performance is a guide to detecting use, amazed that Marat Safin has tested clear for all these years.
Hi Rob. Not sure if cocaine could ever be listed as a cause of good, bad or erratic results. Mats Wilander allegedly had it in his sweatbands, Ben Cousins (elite AFL footballer) used to go crazy on it on weekends and Tom Boonen the cyclist has just gone again for it, and then of course there's Kieran Fallon. Plus Mark Bosnich and Adrian Mutu at Chelsea years ago. I doubt it made one iota of difference to their performance, they were just all loaded with cash and had the lifestyle that exposed them to such problems. Lesser mortals probably would have at least as many failed tests, just there's little point of testing further down the sporting chain...
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