Cricket is one of the most popular sports in the world and not a day seems to go by without a match being played. The sport is highly flexible in many respects, with multiple formats being played worldwide. Whether it be Test Match cricket, One Day Internationals, Twenty20 Internationals, Indian Premier League, Big Bash League, or the English County League, if you look on the top online betting websites, chances are you will find a cricket match on which to bet.
Cricket is a sport that is perfect for betting as it is based highly on numbers and individual moments. While most people choose to bet for fun and as a hobby, there have been occasions where cricket betting has gone out of control.
Recently, Zimbabwe’s Brendan Taylor has been banned from cricket for over three years for his involvement in match fixing. Taylor says he took $15,000 but did not complete the task of fixing a match. However, having taken five months to report the incident, the International Cricket Council has banned Taylor because under the laws of the game, you must report any approach for match fixing immediately.
Match fixing involves fixing the result of a match to profit those who have had a significant bet on the outcome. Spot fixing is another form of corruption in cricket, and this involves fixing a shorter passage of play, such as the number of runs scored in a specific over.
Unfortunately for cricket, the incident involving Taylor is not the first and it has become an occasional problem for the sport over the years.
Several cricketers were caught match fixing in the 1990s and there are believed to be many more incidents where match fixing went unnoticed during what was a troubling time for the sport. Hansie Cronje, the former captain of the South Africa cricket team is perhaps the highest profile casualty of match fixing in cricket. Cronje was a popular player among cricket fans, not only in South Africa but across the world. However, in April 2000, New Delhi police revealed they had recordings of conversations between Cronje and Sanjay Chawla, a well-known member of the Indian betting syndicate. Having initially denied the charges brought against him, Cronje broke down during questioning and was banned from cricket for life.
Other big-name cricketers to get involved in match fixing include Heath Streak, Mohammad Azharuddin, Salim Malik, Mohammad Ashraful, Maurice Odumbe, Mohammad Naveed, and Marlon Samuels. Some of the misdemeanours were trying to fix matches but also leaking team news to bookmakers and bribery of fellow players.
Clearly there have been and will be continued issues surrounding match fixing in cricket. However, these are isolated incidents and most professional cricket matches are played without any issues. The modern online bookmakers are also good at reporting any suspect betting activity surrounding cricket matches and irregular betting patterns are closely monitored.
