Oops They Did It Again ? : Match Fixing Ghosts Returns In Pakistan Camp

Few days ago I read a well written wonderful blog post on dawn. It was on current balling attack of Pakistan and author rated them as world’s best bowling attack of recent times. As cricket fan ,I could not stop myself commenting on that blog. I am big fan of Mohammad Asif , Mohammad Amir , ajmal . Add gul and akhtar when in form to that attack and they can demolished any strong batting line up. They can make shewag , tendulkar , pointing , kallis , peterson look like fighting for life and they can tame any great batsman on their day.

Pakistan has had typical characteristic when it comes to playing cricket. They are unpredictable , they can win against mighty aussies or southafrica or in form Indians while they can get defeated against minnows . What they would come up with is what even wikileaks can’t leak!!!!!!!!!!!. Only thing which any team playing against pakistan can be sure of is that Pakistan cannot be taken lightly.

Yesterday as I woke up , my dad informed me about pakistan cricket team coming under scanner for match fixing . As I switched on the television , it was all over the channels. Considering cricket being as important as budget or even more , for Indians , news channel were competing among themselves to show the video footage , calling experts to get their views.

It was sad to see name of amir , riaz , amin making round in thing like match fixing. Amir is one of best things to happen to cricket in recent times. He had bowled in australia , england and really performed well. The match in which he has been accused of bowling pre decided no ball , amir took six wickets and teared england top order apart. In same match he is being alleged of balling no ball by taking money to suit booker’s business.

Ofcourse what he is being accused of or asif is being accused of didn’t change the match scenario but how can one draw the line?. If allegations are true , how can one be sure that these people wont take money for loosing entire match?

What saddens me is not just cricket match fixing allegation. Cricket would survive and cricket lovers are far more forgiving lot. Azhar who was banned for life for match fixing ,now is member of parliament , cronje is one of most popular man in southafrica even after his death , shane warne is all time great while mark waugh too is remembered for his catches and batting than his infamous fixing thing ,jadeja is seen commenting on matches in prestigious channel . So these things are often forgotten and forgiven and game goes on.

What saddens me is holistic view. Pakistan is on cross roads in history. It is facing worst situation since its independence. It can be said to be worst situation than 1971 war. It is fighting war against own creation called taliban and extremist. It is having floods which has effected large population , its democracy is seeing revival after long time . Amidst this if pakistan could have got good news in any form , it would have been from cricket considering how much they love cricket. Ofcourse it wont have solved any of practical problems but it would have been something to cheer about.

Asif or butt or amir are not zardaris or gilanis or sharifs or khayanis. They cannot fix problems of pakistan but they can atleast play their game without fixing it. They can atleast bring smiles to country in crisis. They are role models for pakistanis and they can provide great examples of strong characters. At least they can do that. Isn’t it?

Share on Facebook