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.
