Today is not a sad day for cricket, as I have heard it described. It is a joyous day. That Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif have been found guilty of their parts in a spot-fixing scam during the Lord’s Test between Pakistan and England last year can only be a good thing for cricket worldwide.
This verdict can be the beginning of a major clean-up operation. For there clearly is a problem. All of us have known that for a long time. Even for me as former professional cricketer, it took some time to admit that. But there is a problem.
When I was playing, any mention of anything such as this sounded as if it had been coming from a different planet, such was my blissful ignorance. But, starting with the shock revelations about the late Hansie Cronje, it began to emerge that cricket was hiding some sinister secrets in its darkest recesses.
That these cricketers now seem certain to face jail sentences is a very powerful deterrent. It is easy to mock the International Cricket Council about this. After all, it took a sting operation from a newspaper to uncover this scam first.
But theirs is a devilishly difficult task, and I’m sure they will have learnt an awful lot from this case. I actually think they are doing a good job in educating today’s players about the dangers of becoming involved with unsavoury characters.
So too the Professional Cricketers’ Association in this country. They work tirelessly to warn the players, and to give them easy and confidential methods of reporting anything untoward.
This will not be the end of corruption in cricket. I am pretty certain it is still going on, and that certain players are trapped in a vicious circle of vice. There may be more days like today. But this can be the start. And it is a good start.
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