Wednesday, November 9, 2011
In an earlier post, I believe I compared cricket in India to football in the United States (American football, not soccer). But I was wrong. Cricket in India is like football, baseball, basketball, and hockey all rolled into one. It is huge here.
Well, today I learned that India is among many others, including a London courtroom. A while back, there were a few Pakistani cricket players who were caught on tape accepting bribes to play badly (called spot-fixing) in a match. Well, today these guys were all handed down prison sentences - some over two years of jail time!
Crazy.
I don't remember this ever happening in the United States with a sport, and obviously it would not be condoned, but would something like this actually be illegal in our courts?
And I'm a little confused about why the trial (and sentences) happened in London. Perhaps the taping happened on UK soil?
Anyway, lesson of the day: Take Cricket Seriously
Well, today I learned that India is among many others, including a London courtroom. A while back, there were a few Pakistani cricket players who were caught on tape accepting bribes to play badly (called spot-fixing) in a match. Well, today these guys were all handed down prison sentences - some over two years of jail time!
Crazy.
I don't remember this ever happening in the United States with a sport, and obviously it would not be condoned, but would something like this actually be illegal in our courts?
And I'm a little confused about why the trial (and sentences) happened in London. Perhaps the taping happened on UK soil?
Anyway, lesson of the day: Take Cricket Seriously
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3 comments:
Game/match/fight/etc. scandals have actually happened in the US. The most famous was the "Black Sox" way back when. It seems like there have been a couple college basketball scandals as well, and of course, boxing is always wrapped in controversy. Also, Juventus was involved in match fixing in Serie A a couple years ago; just thought I'd throw that in there.
Yeah, I thought of the Black Sox immediately, too. (They even made a movie about it with Charlie Sheen in it.) Also, cheating happens in Professional Wrestling all the time - though it's not illegal; just un-sportsmanlike.
The Pakistanis were caught while playing in England in a sting operation by the now infamous and defunct "News of the world" paper. (The same paper that got shut down for tapping cell phones of famous people.)
It is a legal matter because legal gambling (and therefore lots of money) is involved - Conspiracy to defraud bookmakers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_cricket_spot-fixing_scandal
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