West Indies Cricketers Implicated in Match Fixing

The world of cricket is once again mired in an alleged match fixing controversy. The West Indies cricket team was in India recently to play the one day cricket match series in India. Their star player Marlon Samuels is accused of match fixing during the Nagpur ODI played on 21 January.

The Nagpur police is said to have in their possession the taped conversation of Samuels chatting over phone with one of the Indian bookies Mukesh Kochar. The transcript of their conversation has appeared in all the major Indian press outlets and television. During the conversation the bookie Mukesh had asked Samuels some details about the opening batting order and the players who would be bowling prior to the Nagpur match.

Samuel's mother from the West Indies, while defending her son, said that both Mukesh and Samuels were close friends from past six years. Mukesh in a television interview from Dubai did not deny the conversation he had with his friend Samuels during his visit to India. He said that he is like a father figure to Samuels and had only spoken words of encouragement to him.

Mukesh the Indian bookie is alleged to have links to the notorious underworld Dawood Ibrahim. Mr Ibrahim is wanted in India for his role in the 1993 Mumbai blasts.

The Indian police's investigation on the bookie's chat has also thrown up the names of West Indies opener Chris Gayle and Robin Singh. The latter was the former member of the Indian cricket team and lately has taken up assignment of coaching the Junior Indian team.

Mr Robin Singh has denied having any knowledge of the conversation while speaking to the television. For millions of die hard Indian cricket fans it is a relief to know that none of the present Indian players' names is figuring in this controversy. Some ex-cricketers were allegedly involved in match fixing in the past.

As the incident had taken place on Indian soil, the BCCI (Indian cricket board) is once again faced with this controversy thrown at them. Since this match fixing scandal has international ramifications, the BCCI in a clever move passed the buck of holding inquiry into this controversy to the ICC (International cricket).

The match fixing scandal is not a new phenomenon in this cricket crazy nation. Whenever cricket matchs are played, the stakes in the betting market are very high with huge sums of money running up to Rs. 500 crore are bet and exchanged. It is not new that some of the big time bookies are Indian whose names always figure when ever match fixing scandal news breaks out.

I think the only solution to get rid of match fixing is to legitimise the betting on cricket in India. I fail to understand why the government is shying away from this. It is a double standard of Indian government, which has no qualm earning huge revenues from State run lotteries, which could be argued as one type of betting.

With the Cricket World Cup to be played in West Indies, which is around the corner, it remains to be seen how many more names crop up and heads going to roll. How it is going hamper the West Indies' chances of winning the World Cup. Lastly how is the ICC going to handle this crisis in the run up to the World Cup?