Sport is made for betting

A disturbing, but unsurprising, report from Pakistan about the infiltration of spot-fixing into the fabric of cricket at all levels. For all the posturing and anti-gambling hysteria from idiot politicians such as Senator Nick Xenophon in Australia, one thing is crystal clear - the more you drive gambling underground, the more crooked it becomes. Simple comparison - how often do you see betting scandals in the UK and Australia as against any part of Asia? Which one of those societies tries to force betting underground? Eastern Europe can also be considered closer to Asia than the UK/Australia because the only form of legalised betting is often via state monopolies with extortionate take-out/tax rates. Competition, licensing, regulation and education is THE ONLY WAY to handle it. Make all companies operate on normal business principles - look after the customer or they will attempt to screw you over. Keep a tight rein over companies so they always have their finances in order. Conditio...

The state of cricket in Pakistan is still a complete mess. On one side you have Mohammed Asif cancelling his appeal against his spot-fixing suspension, virtually an admission of guilt. On the other, Salman Butt and Mohammed Aamer (Amir) are still protesting their innocence in the matter, although Aamer has been reported as saying he was influenced by peer pressure. Add to that the debacle of cricket administration in the country - trying to cover their own arses by throwing out random and baseless accusations about other countries fixing matches whilst remaining in complete denial about the state of the cancer in their own system. Yesterday's flee to safety of Zulqarnain Haider from the touring party in Dubai after allegedly receiving death threats because he defied orders to throw matches simply shows it is just more of the same. Access to players obviously isn't being blocked, and there must be others still in the squad who continue to insult their country and the world of...

News of the World have printed the latest series of allegations in the Pakistan cricket corruption scandal. Pakistan have had a chequered history in cricket with rumours, allegations and the odd conviction prevalent for a few decades, and before that, it was presure on home umpires to cheat - long before the neutral umpire system came in. So on top of last week's deliberate no-balls to show the players would perform on cue, now we have Salman Butt caught with a pile of dirty money in his room , a player annoyed at not being selected accusing most of his teammates of being corrupt and then the same player denying he said anything . The football club Mazhar Majeed confessed to using a money-laundering toy is now falling apart. And it all came from a tip-off .... It's time cricket authorities, and not just the ICC, had the balls to stand up to Pakistan and tell them to piss off to the B leagues, playing the likes of Zimbabwe. If the ICC don't kick them out, then countri...

It hasn't been a great week for the betting industry and sporting integrity. On top of the Pakistan cricket spot-fixing scandal and today's Hereford racing farce, there have been a couple of other sports raising eyebrows. At the US Open last night, Alexandr Dolgopolov was a huge late drifter from 3.5 out to 7 (losing 0-3 backed into 1.1) and consequently lost in straight sets to David Ferrer, a player he was very competitive against just a few weeks ago. After the match, his poor performance was put down to feeling unwell. Perhaps that's all it was, but it seems as if every man and his dog knew about it and bet accordingly. This kid has far too much talent to waste, but it's not the first match with suspicious betting patterns he has been involved in. The big story in Australian sport has been in the NRL. Rugby league in Australia has had a few suspicious betting stories over the years, now it sounds like the authorities have finally got their act together and might...

More and more evidence is coming to light in the wake of the NotW scandal. GamblerFalls' blog points out that Shahid Afridi warned team management of the characters involved getting too close to the team. And naturally, what did team management do? Put their heads in the sand and ignore it.... The evidence is pretty damning now. I'd be really pissed off if I was boss of a ground about to host a T20 or an ODI in the next couple of weeks. Ticket sales are going to be screwed unless they are already sold. All that effort going into securing an international match, hoping for it to fill the coffers and keep the business ticking over - all gone now.

If the Pakistan spot-fixing allegations prove to be true, then there should be massive implications for the game worldwide. Players will no doubt argue it was supposed to be innocent and not affecting the result of the match, which as alluded to here is complete rubbish. The ICC have a full-txime anti-corruption unit who take particular interest in matches involving India or Pakistan, simply because of their closeness to the underground betting markets. Part of the programme is lecturing every player about the dangers of gambling and being involved with shady parties - not just match-fixing but any form of betting on a match, including spot-fixing. The spot-fixing events in the Lord's Test are alleged to have been a precursor to bigger fixes, most likely a thrown game in the ODIs. The no-balls were used to show the 'fixer' had the players in his pocket and they were able to be bought. This is where it will get political, as can only happen with the ICC. The traditional...

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...

If you didn't catch the end of the T20 World Cup semi-final last night between Australia and Pakistan, you should be kicking yourself. Pakistan batted brilliantly, tearing the Aussie bowling apart to score 6/191. The Aussies were always under the pump, losing Warner in the first over, Watson soon after, then Clarke, Haddin and D.Hussey for not a lot. Cue a fightback from Cameron White, but then he was out with 19 balls left, the team 53 runs short. Even I'd given up - it couldn't be done, Pakistan were bowling too tightly and the Aussies were struggling to find the boundaries. Then up stepped Michael Hussey with an inspired finish. 60 not off 24 balls.... Mike Hussey's last five balls faced... 4 6 6 4 6. Here's a summary of his innings from Cricinfo Some cricket traders copped a hiding, with over £380k matched on Pakistan at 1.01. The crowd, the commentators, the Australian team on the bench and the Pakistani players and entourage were simply gobsmacked by the perfo...

All the concerns from Australia, England and other nations proved justified - Pakistan is not a safe place for foreigners, particularly professional sportsmen. Pakistan, such a talented cricket nation, have been out of the Test arena for over a year before this series against Sri Lanka, the one close neighbour who thought they would have no trouble with security. But even that proved too much of gamble this morning as terrorists attacked the Sri Lankan team bus as they arrived for the third day of the Test match in Lahore. Thankfully, none of the injuries to the five players hit by gunfire are reported to be serious. India had its troubles in Mumbai but that was a political attack rather than anything involving sport. Pakistan is now on the outer, I can't see any international matches being played there for a long time. If they are able to 'host' matches in the near future, then Dubai, England or Sharjah are possible venues. This could be a watershed moment for the ICC. It...