When the South African captain Hansie Cronje was accused of match-fixing ten years ago — the beginning of cricket’s current crisis — the overwhelming reaction was shock, even disbelief. We clung to the hope (at best) that the whole story might be fabricated, or (at least) that Cronje was a rare rogue in an otherwise honest game (well, give or take the odd exercise in conning the umpire).
How innocent that reaction seems today. The match-fixing allegations made about Pakistan on the Sunday morning of the Lord’s Test match prompted deep sadness but not disbelief. That illegal gamblers use compliant professional cricketers to fix parts of cricket matches for corrupt spot betting no longer shocks us. It’s much worse than that. It confirms our worst fears: that in the Cronje inquiry the game’s authorities had only uncovered the tip of the iceberg. Rumours of match-fixing have continued to circulate for a decade. Now rumour appears to have been replaced by evidence.
Sport relies in part on innocence. We thrill to the fact that human beings will travel to their physical and mental limits, just to win, for the glory of victory. When sportsmen are accused of playing deliberately badly to enrich only themselves, the whole magic of sport disintegrates. We begin to doubt that the spectacle is real. The theatre of genuine competition begins to feel like a hollow charade. Once the seed of doubt is planted, we can’t trust anything — not even our memories. In 1999, England won a thrilling run-chase against Cronje’s South Africa. We then learnt that the game suffered from the interference of gamblers, and England’s win was devalued. This week, a game that should be proudly remembered for one of the greatest lower-order batting partnerships in history, has been tainted by the spectre of gambling syndicates and shocking tabloid revelations. That is a deep injustice for Stuart Broad and Jonathan Trott — and all who applauded them from the stands and in front of their televisions.
If cricket cannot get a grip on its problems with illegal betting, the sport may go the same way as athletics and cycling. Though it is profoundly unfair on the clean sprinters and cyclists, many of us have fallen out of love with sports which suffer recurrent cheating scandals. It no longer feels like it is worth the effort to work out who is clean and who is cheating. Cricket’s problem is potentially even worse: agreeing to play badly is even worse than cheating to win.
But there is another story here, one that transcends the integrity of cricket. With one fifth of the country under water, Pakistan’s floods leave it facing perhaps the greatest humanitarian crisis of its troubled history. It is rare that sportsmen can make a real difference. But Pakistan’s cricketers had a chance not only to distract a nation, but also to inspire it. Instead, they have done the opposite.
Cricket is a rare force for internationalism, celebration and joy in Pakistan. Anyone who wants to support a moderate, democratic Pakistan should want Pakistani cricket to excel. Just as Pakistan needs cricket, cricket needs Pakistan. The decline of the West Indies has deprived the international game of one of its most vibrant sides. Cricket cannot allow Pakistan — for so long the world’s most mercurial and romantic team — to slide into irrelevance. Something has clearly been wrong with Pakistan on this tour. But the game cannot afford to give up on it, now more than ever.
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