Matchfixing: Cricket as false sport for sharing 100s and 50s!

-Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal (Specialist on Sport Fixing)

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1.    Characteristics of joint cricketism

Cricket is perhaps one of the biggest jokes, enjoyed by innocent people as a real sport. This falsification, unfortunately, has the endorsement of many governments being controlled by corporate lords that sponsor cricket for more profits.

It is a known fact that by controlling cricket, the corporate lords also control the parliaments and governments. Many parliamentarians also are involved in cricket fixings and hence no punitive action is possible against cricket frauds and cricket matches and profit making o continue thrive. This explains why IPL could not be scraped in India though IPL corruption was debated in the parliament. On the contrary, Indian corporates celebrities, and other rich sections ganged up to protect IPL and launch many IPLs in real sports like football, hockey, etc. They all seem interested in making India look like a regional super power to control weak nations. 

Match fixing in cricket as such looks like state fixing and all state crimes are seen as fully lawful. 

Corruption and other related crimes have to watched with patriotic commitment so that the culprits are punished. However, governments and parliaments promote false sports, making crimes lawful. In fact, the culprits are given national awards and  special awards are arranged from other cricket nations.

Cricket is a useful tool for advancing political and economic goals in South Asia. IPL streamlined the fixed outcomes as Indian corporate lords decide the winning beforehand and promote it. . 

As the teams play only for sharing 100s and 50s for batboys, the regimes also provide all necessary infrastructural facilities to promote this pubic mischief called cricket. 

Nowadays, in order to promote bating, a minimum score is fixed by them. Accordingly, the team that bowls first needs to offer at minimum runs as target score for the second bowling team to chase down. The demand for T20 is 140 and for ODI it is 250 runs. More than 250 is welcome but not below this target, though at times  some unexpected  results beyond the  manipulations of teams could not be ruled out.

What is there in cricket if  such  artificial target is fixed?

It is a known truth that batboys at the crease with bats get runs not just by running between wickets but mainly by hitting 4s and ^s and this happens mainly because of the weak and hollow bowlers who are trained to act too much with a ball on the field in order to generate a false impression about their intended efforts for wickets while in fact they only help the batboys increase the run rate.

If one thinks upon winning the toss, a team opts for bowling the bowlers would be seriously reckless with the ball, disappointment would be the results as bowlers bowl to give as many runs as the batboys want especially the bowling team that comes to “attack” first.

Every bowling team needs a couple of wickets to impress the crowds that know noting or care about nothing about match fixing. Once one or two wickets fall, the bowlers offer too many runs as per their mutual agreements- from 3 runs per over to 15 runs per over, depending on the format they choose to fool the public. The team also decide prior about the “estimated score” for the team bating first.

After giving as many runs in 4s and 6s etc, the team that bats second has to chase down the total to win the match if it can while getting back 100s runs, a record, etc as return favors. If the team had given too many runs, it is difficult to chase down the total if the bowlers are reckless.

That is reason why India always want to bat first by somehow ”winning” the toss. The bowlers and fielders would keep in mind the target score and work towards that without harming batboys. The score for the first bating team is also decided from 150 to 600 runs, depending on the format they choose.

Generally, bowlers can target w stumps or wickets or reduction in run flow only towards the end of the match when the ”needy batboys” are safely with 100s etc.

One would be surprised to watch how the fiddlers derecognize the site of the stumps when they throw the ball to effect runouts. After so much of “training” by paid coaches, the fielders and bowlers have no idea about the stump attack. The fact remains the cricket boards, captains and corporate mafia discourage all serious bowling and fielding. Once in a while something happens but that is not a rule, only an unintended anomaly.

Interestingly, as top batboys fall cheaply , the commentators say that the tail enders defended the team exemplarily and they just shut their blind eyes and refused to say anything about bowler tricks to promote the batboys and maintain a good score for the opponent team. .
Umpires are agents of mafia that recommends umpires.

The cricket teams fix matches for 100s and they also decide which batboy deserves a quick 100 for which a couple of other batboys would quickly sacrifice their wickets.

Governments, managed by corrupt elements, thriving in dirty money and illegal wealth, also promote fake sports persons for more black/grey money and awards.

Governments do not want any law to contain fake sport operations in the name of entertainment.

Nor is there any effective international legal mechanism to punish all match fixing teams and captains. Governments and their intelligences cannot fool the public with the increasing joint cricket exercises.

2.    Sri Lanka pays India in the same token!

In spending huge resources on sports, India has a purpose as it wants to be the top people in sports in the region and every South Asian nation knows Indian mind and tries to accommodate Indian concerns.  None tries to offend India by defeating it in any sport, except Pakistan, which at times threatens its nuke neighbor but eventually surrenders before it these days. 

In the ongoing T20 series SL played aggressively to win it bit in the next two matches it underwent tremendous Indian pressure and let India win comfortably.

Sri Lankan team learned a vital lesson from its own junior team: Under-19 team. On February 09, India Under-19 team seemed to have played mischief with the junior Srilanka Under-19 team. As SL Under-19 team badly lost to India, SL team playing T20 with Indians in India was very careful and bowled India to a meager 101 runs and defeated India by chasing down that total easily.

In the ongoing ICC Under-19 World Cup, India and Sri Lanka played the Semi final on February 08 in Bangladesh. No doubt India is stronger than Sri Lanka in many respects but not necessarily in cricket as well. SL won the toss but elected to bowl. SL began very seriously the first few overs and mainlined 3 runs per over and took 3 wickets. And it appeared India would d not cross 125-150 score but later SL began adding quick runs to increase the run rate to 5 runs per over. SL did not target for wickets until 45th over. India lost 9 wickets but got 267 runs.
When SL batboys came to the crease, Indian bowlers began reckless bowling. While SL increased the run rate of India after half way through, India never let SL batboys to get good runs right from the beginning and halfway through decreased the run rate of SL which got 170 runs.

India uses diplomacy (rather triclomacy) to influence the foreign cricket teams to be considerate about Indian concerns. Already IPL tricks have worked for India. It is quite likely India had a word with SL to let India bat first and give at least 250 runs as minimum score. And after winning the toss SL opted to bowl instead of bating and offered more than 250 runs. After two quick wickets, SL gave Anmolpreet Singh 72 runs and Sarfaraz Khan 59 runs. Possibly SL would have expected return favors as at least one 50 runs from India but that did not happen because India wanted to win.

Interestingly, even junior cricket team under 19 of Pakistan also continues the main team’s predicament in cricket of securing 100s and 50s as perhaps Pakistan’s only sport policy. On 08 February Pakistan under 19 team badly lost to West Indies after from being the favorites to win. West Indies bowled first and their bowlers began attacking Pakistani batboys and took 5 early wickets but after that they began keeping two batboys at the crease for the sixth wicket by offering runs to the tune of 100 and 50 receptively. Pakistanis enjoyed that part as Pakistani batboys Umair Masood and Salman Fayyaz got 113 and 58 runs respectively while Pakistan got a score of 227 runs for 6 wickets. Pakistani bowlers could have won the match but they first wanted to make the return favors to WI batboys in two 50s and began bowling very positively in quick runs. TA Imlach and SO Hetmyer were given good 50s.

Maybe a 100 for its batboy was a special for Pakistan that it thought to first returning the favors first and then win the match as well. That did not happen as WI batboys got stabilized with two full 50s and surged against making life difficult for Pak bowlers. Generally the second bowling team ensures its winning chaces  before offering 5s or 100s. WI won the quarter final match to reach the semi final and it is quite likely it would win the race as well against India.

India will have problems facing West Indies. India’s game plan now is to support chances for Bangladesh to reach the finals so that an easily win the cup as Bangladesh does not have the will to defeat its former masters and today’s supporters against Pakistan. Like India, Bangladesh also sees Pakistan as its rival and chief regional foe.

It looks; India was sure of winning the match and reach the final to play against Bangladesh winning it easily to reach the final to face India. (Bangladesh has no will power or skills to defeat either India or Pakistan). Pakistan knew India would resort to triclomacy to somehow defeat Pakistan which would hesitantly let India win. But Pakistan would also let India know that it did a great favor to India.  Pakistan having lost to West Indies has lost that privilege and advantage.

(West Indies defeated India in the final to take the world title on Feb 14). Meanwhile, India taught valuable lessons of Sri Lanka by defeating it in second and third T20. In fact, SL chose to bowl, gave nearly 200 runs at 10 runs per over with a full 100 to a batboy but India gave it only 120 runs in return and won. In third t20 India gave just 82 runs and defeated SL mercilessly.

 
For most Pakistanis, perhaps, getting a 100 for batboys is more important than winning a match in a genuine manner. They would even argue that Pakistan got what it wanted - a 100 runs. A fake record!

Pakistani rulers have in fact failed the Islamic state in many respects, including denial of real sports to its citizens.

3.    Indo-Pakistan batboys eager for early series!

It appears India thinks it gets due recognition for its “records and rankings” in cricket only if it plays with Pakistan. For Pakistan which wants to promote only cricket as sport and as major entertainment and seeks 100s and 50s for its batboys in order to make them heroes, urgently seeks to joint cricket exercises with its nuclear neighbor. In fact, Pakistani youth has lost interest in real sports and young as well as old people play cricket only for 100s and 50s.

Pakistan remains the only nuclear power on earth which has almost zero level sport talent. In the ongoing South Asian Games, for instance Pakistan is way behind India in medal tally, although it can claim to be much better than Bangladesh. Maybe, Pakistan wants to leave sport field to India as the latter does not like any serious challenge from its rival nuclear power in sports. Whatever maybe the reason for Pakistan’s very pathetic performance cannot be justified in simple explanations as Pakistani youth is denied its role in sports
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However, Indo-Pakistani cricket matches are the most dangerous tournament as they create panic situations and generation tensions like cross border attacks.

Due mainly to terror issue, Pakistan and India have stopped playing cricket series. While India manages 100s and 50s on a regular basis, Pakistan would feel suffocated without them. Now more than India, Pakistan is eager to restart the stalled joint exercises.

Both Pakistanis and Indians are upbeat about the prospects of their teams playing cricket, to help batboys share 50s, 100s and more, after a lapse of many years owing to tensions between them over stated issues like terrorism. Pakistani corporates are restless without being able to sponsor matches for making huge profits, including tax concessions.

It appears, more than India, Pakistan is keen to play with India to legitimize its 100s and other mutual scores. Not many countries invite Pakistanis team to play, while except Sri Lanka no cricket nation sends their teams to Pakistan. That is the big loss for Pakistan though not a great tragedy for the nation. But Pakistani government seems to be adamant to play only cricket as sport and hence not at all interested in genuine sports.

Pakistani entertainments include films and cricket as it does not play any other real sport. Pakistani government seems not promoting sports in the country

PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan has said if “the proposed India-Pakistan bilateral series” is not held now it would not be possible to have one for the next one year. He also made it clear that the bilateral series with India that is still undecided and the World T20 were two separate things. "This is a bilateral series between two nations the World T20 is an ICC event."

But the PCB chief said in an interview that the PCB will have to seek its government permission to send the team to India for the World T20 in March. "We are monitoring the situation but given the current environment in India with regards to Pakistan we will have to ask our government for permission whether the security situation is ok for us to send our team," he said.

Khan sounded visibly disappointed at the failure of the Indian board and government to clear the short bilateral series with Pakistan in Sri Lanka. "We feel that India must fulfill the MOU signed between the two boards and if the series is held it will play a role in improving India and Pakistan relations." Khan also insisted that if India didn't agree to play the series the PCB would obviously suffer financial losses but would not go bankrupt. ".. We are in a stable financial position and though not having the series will deprive us of lot of estimated revenues but it does not mean we will be in a bad financial position." The PCB chief said he had still not given up hope and even the ICC wanted the two boards to play the series soon.

Khan confirmed that ECB President Giles Clarke was playing the role of a mediator in the whole issue. Khan felt that the Indian board also wanted to play the series but said it was not up to them to convince their government to give clearance.

Nothing has moved further. Possibly Indo-Pakistani series would add more problems to the regional problems. Pakistan should not buy problems for its people.

Pakistan needs to change its cricket mindset so that Pakistani youth begins take interest in sports.

While the corporate media promoting only cricket are not bothered about the future of Pakistani youth, Intelligentsia in Pakistan has a positive role to play in encouraging the youth to engage themselves in real sport activities and avoid fake sport like cricket.

Fake runs, fake records and fake glory, even if the governments promote them, are not valid in Islam.

Of course, India’s strategic role in making Pakistan a failed state is obvious.  USA just assisted it.  Will Pakistan wake up at least now?

4.    What is the best method to take wickets?

There is only one method for taking wickets at regular interval: commitment to the bowling profession. Every bowler is trained but they are used for promoting the cause of batboys. As a result, more often than not, bowlers are seen playing mischief and not serious bowling. ICC boys possibly instruct the bowlers to be considerate about batboys’ needs.

Bowlers should be serious and committed to win the match for the team. And seriousness can be demonstrated by denying easy runs for the batboys.

Of course, if bowlers are lucky or batboys are unlucky, quick wickets are possible Also when batboys deliberately give away their wickets to enable other batboys to make 100 etc.
However, bowlers should not depend wholly on batboys bad luck or their own luck. But they must practice well.

Bowlers should enlist the full commitment from fielders and skipper.

Bowlers should stop offering runs for fun or money or for some other reasons.

ICC should allow the fielders stop the ball by legs  if necessary. Now fielders can stop the ball only by hands and body. Fielders are seen running parallel with the rolling ball without stopping it by leg, thereby allowing free runs for the poor batboys.

ICC should reform cricket in such way that getting a run becomes as difficult as taking a wicket, if not more difficult. It should consider 6s and 4s and let batboys make scores only by running.

Getting runs in 6s and 4s but without running between the wickets looks very strange! ICC and boards seek only easy runs.  Cricket, therefore, is nothing but immorality.

ICC should introduce double wickets from a ball as well. If a batboy is caught the ball should be thrown to remove the other batboy as runout if he is out of the crease when ball arrives.

Every rule stitched to make poor batboys shine too much with 100s and 50s while bowlers have to support that mischief as their duty.

5.    Game plan of ICC and cricket nations

There is no cricket team/nation that gives importance to bowling performance strictly.  In fact, no team or government wants blowers to decide the outcomes of the matches, except in “emergency” cases when a particular team wants to win by using bowlers effectively. 

Cricket mafia, cricket boards, cricketers themselves and the cricket nations want to see only the batboys to shine hitting big 6s and 4s. They want the paid bowlers and fielders to support the cause of the batboys.  Look at the way batboys pose themselves as if the they have scaled the mount Everest, though they know the bowler has allowed him to hit big by throwing the perfectly to his bat, enabling him make perfect choice for a big 6.

Batboys fool the crowds while cricket boards and teams fool the world! Governments with shame celebrate the cricket frauds by bestowing national awards on them.

Occasionally, we do watch matches when the team bowling team  bowls recklessly, taking all wickets and  giving a paltry score and the  team bowling next also follows the suit , recklessly bowling, picking all wickets and even win. At times, in spite of reckless bowling, the team that bowls second would not be able to win because the batboys could chase down a meager score any way. 

Now bowlers and keepers  also bat, making cricket a bad smelly fish market. 

If you watch a cricket match either on TV or in the stadium, you will see the ground is almost empty with only a few boys standing there as pathetic fielders. This field emptiness allows batboys to hit at will the ball through mostly the spaces. Bowlers help the batboys by throwing “harmless” ball with care.

ICC and cricket government should be brave to add more fielders who should only field and cannot bat. 

ICC should not allow bowlers to bat so that they focus on bowling only. Now when the batboys fail to get runs, the tail enders/bowlers are given quick runs.

What a joke! What shame!

Since entire cricket fraternity is involved in the perpetual match fixes, there are no clashes between batboys and bowlers. No batboy complains about reckless bowling because that exposes folly of batboys. No batboy complains against bowlers for targeting his wicket while giving many runs to others. That is because that is way of cricket fixing; such is the way of bowling in cricket. Batboys understand it and know that their turn for 100 and 50 also would come in course and team would fix it. There are instances, when a fellow batboy throws away his wicket as his fellow batboy is nearing 100, indirectly requesting the bowlers to let him enjoy his full 100. They don’t say word about the mischief in open. 

Game plan of ICC, cricket boards, teams, cricket nations and cricket mafia is to help the batboys advance their bogus records for rewards and money. They fear if batboys are not promoted, not only they collapse, but cricket as profit making secret profession would also perish.

The fear is not genuine, however. If ICC makes bowling and fielding somewhat scientific and genuine, remove preeminence of bating for money and rewards, equate bowling and bating as central parts cricket, make runs very difficult – even more difficult than wickets. Batboys now enjoy hitting while even genuine bowlers struggle for a wicket.

Spectators should see how the batboys struggle to get a run.  The bogus flow of 6s and 4s to increase the run rate is illegal. In fact, if a ball goes out of boundary without touching the ground should be void and if a ball crosses the boundary it could not offer any extra runs – the batboys should run and get runs before the ball returns to the bowler.   

A genuine cricket would make batboys and bowlers serious about their professions, would then stop cheating the public by sheer mischief. Spectators would keenly watch if a ball could get a run or wicket.   Matches would then be really interesting, indeed somewhat genuine.  

That said, one thing is certain: cricket can never be genuine because cricketers do not want it be genuine, affecting their immoral fortunes, come what may. Cricketers are scared of making any changes in cricket rules that would expose all their bogus records and fake records fake standings, made so far and reveal nexus between cricketers, mafia and government.   

Honest is missing in the government and society, everywhere lies and frauds. Governments and parliaments are full of such frauds and fakes. How can one expect these sources to deliver justice and contain corruption?