Jadeja, Spot fixing verdict and the Butts

Ravinder Jadeja has scored a triple century in the Ranji opener against Orrisa at a Sehwagasque strike rate of 83. And that has thrown rumor mills rife at the fact that he would be taken along to  Australia as # 6 batsman and also a part time spinner.  I doubt the wisdom and brains of cricketing selectors in India that they might be tempted to think that Jadeja has now turned completely into an allrounder mode and can contribute in Tests too. Times Of India shamelessly rooted for this chap to be included in tests. The only opening for now in the tests slot seems to be for # 6 with 3 contenders in the team for it and 4th one actually getting fitter.  Jadeja, in selectors' view can become the 5th one.

 

He also took 10 wickets in the recently concluded England ODi series and now has 15 wickets in 8 games since his return. I wonder if he would be still considered to play when the likes of Yuvraj, Sehwag return to the ODI team. 

 

The 3 tainted jailed stani cricketers are now asking for mercy or even considering to file for an appeal against the guilt and sentence. Its been reported in English media that they were even left to tears on hearing the sentences handed out to them. Strange. For 15 months on, from executing the no-balls, they dint show any remorse or accept the guilt. They continued to claim they are framed and are innocent, but now when they are in jail, suddenly they are now religious and their families are talking about GOD n all. Its weird to see that in Pakistan, the evil doers dont hesitate to commit the crime, but when it comes to receive the punishment for it, they suddenly start talking GOD. 

 

The conviction of 3 cricketers has just been a start and this process must go on to find all the crooks and eradicate them. Across all countries including safe havens like middle east which are now home grounds to the Pakistanis.

 

Thats just the tip of the iceberg and whats concerning is the statement from Mazhar Mazeed "65000 pounds paid to Asif to keep him loyal and prevent him from wanderring to the "rival fixing factions in the Pakistan team" ". What does it mean? Are there more cheats and crooks involved from Pakistan?  There are rumors about involvement of Akamals, Riaz and Farhat. Are they true? None of this players are now playing for Pakistan, so are they dropped cos PCB knows in positive about their involvement and have been proactive to drop them or is it just a coincidence that now Wahab Riaz is not even part of touring team to middle east for Lanka ODIs?

 

Who is gonna bring the clown farts sitting in PCB and ICC to justice?  What was ACSU, the "toothless paper tiger" doing all this while since its inception to eradicate the corruption from the game ?

 

What happens to Sir Shri Ijaz Butt? Would he be a party to the crime of spot fixing ? Would he be let off?

 

And with this note, there is to say that Arm Ball is back.

A welcome verdict in Spot fixing saga

The spot fixers are going to jail. And nothing can be better than this. The folks who got the game to disrepute and introduced the term "spot fixing" to the cricketing world and fans are now punished. Deterrent to the future fixers? Not quite? May be the fixing might not happen in England any more. But it certainly can happen in other parts like Pakistan or Dubai or South Africa or even India. 

Given how lax judicial process in India is, any such episode unearthed in India would mean a long judicial trial and a bail subsequently. But thats not the point here. The orchestration of spot fixing saga has ensured the main stars are in the jail. Salman Butt and Mazhar Majeed, the composers and Amir, Asif -- stupid executors are now behind the bars. 

English judicial system ensured the trial was fast track and the defendants were punished promptly. Perhaps we would have expected more stern punishments and something like life bans for all 3 players.  The judge did take into consideration, the bans handed out by the ICC to the 3 folks and that probably reduced the quantum of the punishment to the 3 bastards. 

Amir, being the youngest was laid astray by his captain then and bowled into the plot. Its more of his loss than anybody else's. If he is not mature enough or if he cannot hold onto his temptations for easy money and is lured easily into unethical greed, then he is better off the game of cricket. 1 yr would be gone soon and he would be out of the offenders institute. What would he do next ? He might have been gifted bowler, had exemplary skills as a bowlers, which typically every Pakistani bowler does, but that holds no good if he is sans self control. He is right to say that cricket wont need him when he has served his ban and punishment. Perhaps by that time Pakistan cricket would have unearthed few more Amirs and who knows all of them better than this lad.  He has been able to garner sympathy for his case owing to the poverty stricken background and age, but he was not too young not to judge right or wrong. So he is right to have been punished. 

Mohd Asif is perennial idiot and a top class bastard. Having served ban for drugs, out of the team, lucky enough to be back playing for the team again, he simply didnt value his talent and his superb bowling skills, good enough to trouble any batsman on any track. He almost got into prison in doping scandal, drugs episode in middle east and now he finally ended up in prison in England where he has bowled the BEST.

In the end we can say he is rightly punished. 

Salman Butt is the biggest fucktard and biggest culprit. No amount of sympathy is good for him even on name of Allah or Khuda or anybody else. He should have been by his wife's side celebrating birth of his 2nd child, but instead he was standing in dock to be imprisoned. He as  captain of the team had every control in the world and by misusing his powers he deserved every bit of punishment he has got. He has been lucky to have just got 32 months in prison. It should have been much longer than that. He lured a kid in the corruption, he got the game into disrepute and he just deserved every brickbat and abuse, hatred he is getting. 

There are lot many Mazhar Majeeds roaming around in the cricketing world and nabbing one of them is not going to cleanse the game. All of them have to be cracked down and ensured that they are not able to excersise their influence on the next set of Butts, Asifs and Amirs so that the paying spectator and TV watcher would believe that there was nothing fishy behind a no ball bowled and it was natural rather than spot fixed. 

ICC has to act now sternly than ever before in its existence to ensure the game of cricket which we love is back to its purest form.

Removal of Butt, DRS flip flop and Spot Fixing

There have been some interesting happenings in world cricket in past few days visibly:

1. Ijaz Butt being replaced as a PCB chief by some banker.

2. Spot fixing trial being on in England and as it happens during any trial, some random names are being taken up and this time its been Indian and Australian players being named.

3. ICC goes flip flop in usage of DRS in a bilateral series.

Ijaz Butt has been one attrocious chief for PCB and his shenangians as PCB chief have been very well documented. Double digit captaincy changes, rollbacks on bans, punishments, multiple retirements, rollback, selection chiefs resigning, changes in coaches and stuff like that plus loose canon statements in 3 years, Lahore attack in 2009 and world cup drama have been the highlights of his tenure. Not to mention the spot fixing saga, fleeing of a wicketkeeper on the pre-text of threats from bookies, disastrous English and Australian tours, handling of players like Yusuf, Younis Khan, Afridi, Kaneria and Malik, relations with BCCI over IPL and bilateral series, tussle with ICC which led to an ultimatum to fix its internal governance or run the risk of expulsion from ICC. All of this issues have been mishandled by the great chief in general of PCB.

There is a distressing thought that he might have agreed to step down from the post in lieu of assurance that PCB and BCB would put him as ICC vice presidency candidate. If true, then it would take more than necessary efforts for the other boards than what were done to block John Howard from Australia, to block out Ijaz Butt from stepping into world cricket governance. One can only hope that Pakistan cricket shall progress in terms of every aspect under new chief and the ridicule it has invited over the years would yield to some respect in coming months and years.

Spot fixing trial has commenced in England and the 3 players in addition to the player agent in question have been cross examined and what has come out of it is a wide detail account of how the spot fixing was setup in England last year and what else was in the offing, but was prevented from execution owing to the bust up from the now defunct NOTW. Some Indian and Australian players were named as the ones whom that agent had an easy access to. No wonder, those allegations were promptly denied by CA and BCCI and the players themselves.

As the hearing is going on, more details are tumbling out of the closet of the spot fixing and thats just making the lives of those 3 tainted players more difficult and their return to international cricket being more unlikely even after serving the amount of sentence handed over by ICC. What was also distressing out of the details that emerged was the ease with which Pakistan players agree to lose / throw a match to disown their captain or bring the captain under the hood for some egoistical / weird reason. It's been the age old story of their country and their cricket ever since their inception since 1947.

ICC also has gone back on the mandatory usage of DRS (Dravid Removal System) in bilateral series. BCCI had been vocal in the criticism of DRS and though it diluted its stand in England tour, the happenings in England were good enough to indicate BCCI that DRS in current form has no future unless those acrimonious issues over Hot Spot usage and ball tracking technology have been addressed. India has suffered out of the DRS usage in whatever series it has accepted, be it SL 2008, or world cup 2011 or England tour of 2011. The BCCI has been adamant in its opposition to the DRS, thought they havent taken the pain to go ahead and explain the reasons for their opposition. That has never been BCCI's strong forte to offer detailed explanation for its views and stand over issues.

What is further baffling is the time ICC took to understand that DRS in current form is not good enough to be imposed as mandatory in all bilateral series. Instead of resolving the open issues that are meeting eyeballs, the ICC has chosen to keep the issue under the carpet and sit over it. Take a stance, revert back. Thats been ICC theme for 2011. Be it usage of DRS or the World cup 2015 format banning out the associate nations and then rolling back. What is Sharad Pawar doing ?

ICC has also been harping on the primacy of Test cricket and when its coming to the implementation of plans of test championship, it is developing cold feet. Its now saying that the proposed Test championship might be delayed until 2017 cos the broadcaster wants to lay stress on profit earning ventures like a T20 WC every 2 years and an increasingly obsolete 50 overs Champions Trophy, not to forget the T20 tamasha of Champions League T20.

This is also a start of the time period in world cricket when all 10 teams are going to be busy in cricket.