Pakistan: The Black Sheep in the International Cricket Family

Last weekend during the 4th test match against England, it was revealed in The News of The World that a man had been arrested for paying Pakistani players to bowl no-balls at specific times during the match. While this might not be the worst case of “fixing” in cricket, it is yet another damning and ugly incident involving Pakistan cricket. There now must be calls to remove Pakistan from playing international cricket because of the the systematic cheating, rorting and unprofessionalism that has diseased the game in Pakistan.



The biggest issue that has always hung around the performance of the Pakistan cricket team is match-fixing. An expression a number of Australian players have used to describe how the Pakistan team plays over the years is “You’re never sure what Pakistan team will turn up on the day - they are unpredictable”. By the allegations and the incidents over the decades, this could be paraphrased as “Are all of the Pakistan players playing to win or are they playing for something more sinister?”

Rumours and allegations of match-fixing involving Pakistan have been around since 1979-80 when players were accused of throwing matches during a tour of India. There were also allegations of throwing the World Cup semi-final in 1987 against Australia.

One of the first, substantiated incidents of match-fixing involving Pakistan occurred during the 1st test match against Australia in Karachi in 1994. It was revealed that well-renowned Pakistan batsman AND captain Salim Malik offered Mark Waugh, Tim May and Shane Warne $70,000 each during the test match to perform badly to allow Pakistan to win after Australia was in a strong position. The Australian players declined the money. However amazingly enough, Pakistan chased down the target of 314 runs with 1 wicket remaining - the 12th largest successful run chase ever at the time. A Pakistan government judicial inquiry banned Malik for life and fined six top players

Many other match-fixing incidents have occurred since then including the infamous Hanse Cronje affair and the subsequent findings of the report into match-fixing. It appears now that countries such as South Africa and India, teams that have been riddled with match-fixing by some of their top players in the past, have now implemented strategies to eliminate match-fixing and have disassociated themselves with past players, coaches and officials who have previously been linked with match-fixing. However, the stench of match-fixing has never really gone away from the Pakistan team.

After the 1999 World Cup, an inquiry found no credible evidence to suggest Pakistan players had fixed their loss to minnows Bangladesh during the tournament. At the 2007 World Cup, coach Bob Woolmer was found dead in his hotel room after a loss to even bigger minnows Ireland. A conclusive autopsy was never reached and some conspiracy theorists believe people associated with high-stakes gambling may have had something to do with his death. More recently, Australia remarkably won the Sydney test match earlier this year after Pakistan were 206 runs ahead after the first innings. It was the 6th largest deficit to overcome to win a test match.

However, it is not only match-fixing that has made Pakistan cricket an unprofessional, dishonest and disrespectful body. The Pakistan cricket board appears to have no structure or no systems in place to nurture young talent to develop them into international quality players. The board is also unpredictable in picking teams - not necessarily based upon form - but based upon a hidden agenda, favourites or something other. For example, captain Mohammad Yousuf and former captain Younis Khan were banned FOR LIFE for losing every game in the series in Australia - though they were one of the best performing players, not only during the tour, but throughout the past 10 years. However, this ban was overturned within 3 months - probably because Pakistan was playing so poorly during the first two test matches against England. Any player for the Pakistan cricket team would never feel secure in their position in the team, regardless of their on-field performance. Maybe this is the reason why Pakistan players try to make as much money as they can in the limited amount of games they are involved in.

Another blight on the Pakistan game is the association of performance-enhancing drugs with some of it’s players. In 2006, Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif were both found guilty of taking nandrolone and banned for two-years. However, because of the unpredictability of the Pakistan board and the procedures in place to deal with such incidents, their bans were acquitted. Suspiciously, in 2007 both of these players were withdrawn from the World Cup squad due to injury reasons just minutes before they were to leave for the tournament. By withdrawing from the team, they avoided being drug tested.

Other incidents include, the aforementioned Bob Woolmer death, bowlers called for throwing and the terrorist attacks on the umpires and Sri Lankan team buses during a test match in March 2009. To date, international cricket has still not been played in Pakistan.

All in all Pakistan cricket is a joke. From the players, to the playing staff, to the board and even the government, Pakistan cricket is a corrupt, unprofessional and highly disorganised sporting body the brings down the international repetition of the sport and lets down the fans of a country that lives and dies by cricket. Pakistan cricket should be banned for bringing the game into disrepute, for allowing systematic cheating and for not providing the systems and policies in place to prevent the aforementioned incidents from occurring. If action is not taken against Pakistan now, then the same atrocities will continue to occur and the game of cricket will continue to be tarnished for years to come.