Sport is made for betting

News breaking tonight of another betting scandal involving the Pakistan cricket team and the News of the World, an English tabloid newspaper. A middle-man is alleged to have arranged no-balls at specific times in the England first innings in the current Test match at Lord's, in return for substantial amounts of money. The no-balls in question bowled by Mohammed Amir were not even close, at least a foot over, which is curious, the one for Mohammed Asif wasn't so blatant. But is it as clear-cut as it seems? For me, it sounds too perfect. Pakistan are easy targets - they don't have a great reputation for integrity, and linking it to illegal bookmakers on the sub-continent is the perfect modus operandi as they have no licence or audit trail. People say that millions get bet on this stuff, despite all sorts of previous allegations about these markets, but there's nowhere to prove it is true or not. Was the evidence shown to anyone before the event, or did it only emerge co...

Can it be done? Can Australia really chase down 521 in the fourth innings to win at Lord's? Well, if the skies stay blue and the pitch is benign, we have to be a chance with Clarke and Haddin in fine form. But, one wicket goes early and that all goes out the window. There's a big difference between the tail hanging around to be annoying and the tail wagging to create history. The Aussies are down to 5/2 (3.5) on Betfair at the moment, can't help thinking that is mighty short considering there are no recognised batsmen left in the pavilion and there are still over 200 runs left to get....