The headline “Pakistan Cricketers Are Cheats” doesn’t seem appropriate as a one-off, because it could really apply to a dozen incidents in the last 10 years.

Right back in the summer of 2000 the Qayyum Inquiry into match-fixing was damning. Justice Qayyum’s investigation seemed thorough, and the Indians threw in a few sacrificial players identified by their Central Bureau of Investigation, but it all came neatly gift-wrapped and debate was stamped on. This allowed the rotten core of bent players to continue but having learned their lesson not to be so blatant about it. International Cricket Council set up their Anti Corruption and Security Unit to give ex-copper Paul Condon a job with a decent expense account, and ‘regional officers’ were appointed to lecture unsponsored and skint young players that making some money on the side was bad.

And so it continued. Four years ago, after being caught on camera blatantly ball tampering during a tour to England Australian umpire Darrell Hair ruled that Pakistan had forfeited the Test at the Oval by refusing to take the field in a protest over his ruling. The Asian-dominated ICC later quietly overturned that ‘forfeit’ in favour of a less controversial ‘result’; Hair was smeared as a racist child molesting baby eating hate-mongering bigot and forced into retirement. Again, all went quiet and officials sauntered away whistling that everything was fine.

Of course it wasn’t Last year a committee of Pakistan’s parliament summoned senior figures from the team to discuss allegations that they deliberately lost a Champions Trophy match to prevent India from reaching the semi-finals, and in May this year the International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption unit looked at Pakistan’s poor performance after having their arses handed to them by Australia during a tour of the country.

Now we have video evidence featuring a man with a large amount of cash explaining exactly what would (and then did) happen in the match. How big does the rug need to be for the Pakistan Cricket Board to get away with sweeping this one under?

Pakistan’s team management believe that their one-day series against England will go ahead as planned next week, but the series of five ODIs and two Twenty20s that get underway in Cardiff on September 5 have got to be in doubt, surely?


“These are just allegations, anyone can say anything about anyone, that doesn’t make them true,” Salman Butt said, talking out of his arse. They’ve all been caught on tape like kippers and deserve to be thrown out of Test cricket and in jail.