Over an extraordinary week, Pakistan and South Africa fought out what seemed a timeless clash in their ODI series in the desert heat of the United Arab Emirates. Twice Pakistan won with one wicket and one ball to spare. The intervening game also saw them nine wickets down, this time falling three runs short.
Hashim Amla scored centuries and fifties at will; Shoaib Akhtar found a day of vintage form; and Abdul Razzaq played simply one of the greatest ever one-day innings ever to pull off a heist of Ocean’s Eleven proportions.
Pakistani wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider, a recent inclusion in the team, played a crucial part, scoring a calm 19 not out in the chaos of the fourth ODI to square the series at 2-2.
Shortly afterwards, he retrieved his passport from team management on the pretence of buying a sim card, then on the morning of the deciding match, stole away to catch a 6 a.m. flight to London.
From there Haider has claimed he was threatened by an unknown man, who insisted he not interfere with plans to ensure Pakistan lost the final two matches. If he came on board, he would be paid. If he didn’t, he and his family would be killed.
It was too late to avoid playing the fourth ODI, and Haider duly took his side to victory. “The country is like your mother and if you sell that you are nothing,” he said by way of explanation.
But with a wife and two young daughters, he took the threats seriously enough to run before the fifth match. He is seeking asylum in England, and has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. He is 24 years old.
In his impromptu press conference at a London restaurant, he barely looked even those scant few years. Carefully dressed against the cold in a neat jacket and scarf, he was simply a young man, out of his depth and deeply afraid.
The fact that criminals are prepared to target someone like this only fuels the indignation their actions inspire.
Haider has been criticised by both the PCB and the ICC for not staying and reporting the incident. He said he didn’t want to risk getting others from the team in trouble.
But the subtext is perfectly clear. Haider had no idea who he could trust.
When the no-ball scandal broke, the saddest part was which players were allegedly involved. The bright young captain, the reinvented paceman now in the richest form of his career, and of course the young prodigy, a superstar in the making.
Now the potential loss to the game is yet another of the bright young hopes of Pakistan cricket, and one of the few spots of optimism to emerge from that disastrous tour of England.
A reserve wicketkeeper on the fringes of the squad for some years, Haider broke into the Test side in England last May. He also broke his thumb batting, but scored a long, defiant 88 while his team collapsed around him.
He was immediately sent home with the injury, an over-reaction he was apparently unhappy about. The ever-flaky Kamran Akmal came back to take his place. Subsequent events make it easy to view this decision with scepticism.
Now, after just that one Test, the four ODIs of this series, and three Twenty20 Internationals, Haider’s career is apparently over, the latest victim to the curse of match-fixing.
A range of pundits, including myself, have underestimated exactly how insidious this practice is. To us, match-fixing fell into the Shane Warne/Hansie Cronje mould.
A player could be befriended, given expensive gifts, and softened up. Warne’s ‘experience’ came via a nice gentleman next to him at the roulette table, who paid for him to make some of his bets. It probably seemed quite innocuous at the time.
Then it moves on to the Cronje stage – a relationship is developed, and the fixer proposes that the player might like to tweak a few results and make a lot of money.
In this model, the only deciding factor is the player’s greed, and it’s up to him to make the decision to turn down the offer and report it. If he doesn’t, it’s a failing of moral character. But the choice is entirely with the sportsman – whether or not to take the serpent’s apple.
The reality, though, is that some serpents won’t take no for an answer. If the fruit isn’t tempting enough, they have fangs to back it up.
Suddenly we’ve seen what happens when those fangs are bared. Match-fixers aren’t happily in cahoots with corrupt players as their partners. They are the masters with players in their employ.
Young cricketers like Haider can quickly gain celebrity, but not financial or political clout. An Indian superstar can afford bodyguards and bulletproof glass. A fringe Pakistani player on a low-tier stipend cannot.
The reaction in Pakistan’s administration has been extraordinary.
In a situation where a clearly distressed player needs support and care, his board have instead publicly attacked him for fleeing, and cut off his pay. Pakistani media has alleged that he did a runner after taking a bribe, or that he’d already been told he would be dropped for the final ODI.
Why anyone would sacrifice the rest of their career and risk their life for the sake of one match worth of dirty money is a question beyond the ludicrous, let alone fleeing the country in a hissy fit over non-selection.
Even from here the frustration is immense.
If Pakistan could put a full-strength side on the field, if they could just play without fear or hampering, they would be world-beaters. A cricket-loving nation would get what it deserved.
After the no-ball drama, I strongly opposed the frequent calls to suspend Pakistan outright. It was a kneejerk and simplistic reaction, and I didn’t think the whole nation deserved to suffer for the actions of individuals.
Now it’s clear that the problem is far greater and more dangerous than initially thought. It may well be inextricable. Still, suspending Pakistan is not the answer, not for ethical reasons, but simply because it won’t work.
These match-fixers have shown absolutely no fear, nor any hint of subtlety. They were purportedly circling the one-day series in England just days after the original scandal broke.
With this UAE series being Pakistan’s next international assignment, and with all kinds of ICC and media attention on Pakistan’s results, you would have thought the crooks would choose to lay low.
Not so. They are, as ever, elbow-deep in trouble. So what will the crooks do if Pakistan is suspended?
They’ll wait.
Perhaps they’ll devote more time to courting young Indian players, to tweaking the IPL, maybe looking at the odd Kiwi or West Indian on modest contracts. But for whatever reason, Pakistan seems to be the team with which these fixers are most brazen.
While the men in green could spend a couple of years on the sidelines, and various efforts could be made to root out corrupt players and officials, the process will simply start over as soon as Pakistan re-enters cricket. Businessmen know how to bide their time for opportunities.
In the meantime, Pakistani cricketers would be robbed of the chance to play, those with a martyr complex would be able to cry discrimination, and the children of one of the world’s most enthusiastic cricket nations would have no chance to see their team and dream the dreams that inspires.
Obviously the current squad, with every second result being called into question, does not hail from the field of dreams. But if Haider’s predicament can teach us anything, it’s that anti-corruption is no longer about finding corrupt players and putting the blame on them.
It’s about protecting players from the influence of those criminals tinkering with the game from the outside.
Radical steps need to be taken.
A successful manipulation of betting markets requires match-fixers to be able to order changes and results at short notice. Which in turn requires them to be able to communicate with players.
How was an unknown individual with a couple of henchmen able to approach Haider without anyone else around, for instance? Remove the possibility of that approach, and you remove the fixer’s power.
If they can’t contact players, then they can’t make threats or promises, nor issue demands. So make it so. It won’t be easy, but it could be done.
Have ICC or law enforcement officials accompany Pakistan during any series they play. Haider suggested all players’ phones should be tapped. Perhaps they should. Or simply confiscate mobile phones for the duration, so that incoming calls go through the accompanying officials, and identities can be verified.
Restrict any access to the team hotel, and escort any players who want to go out. Conversations with anyone who approaches them could be recorded, suspicious interactions reported.
This may seem draconian, but in the end it would be for the safety of the players and their families. The criminals involved are like criminals in any other empire. They see the people they use as nothing more than a means to their own personal enrichment. The players are not human beings, simply Monopoly markers.
The ICC has to move decisively and ruthlessly. Starve the fixers of oxygen. Tighten restrictions until they can no longer breathe. Only then will they have to move on elsewhere.
That field of dreams needs to be reclaimed. It is the reason we watch sport, the reason we invest so much of ourselves in these strange dramas of other people. It is because we see it as the striving to excel, to exceed, to overcome limitations. It gives us hope.
When the spectre of corruption, of tampering, becomes involved, the dream dissolves as quickly as that of any morning nap. And in Haider’s case, his sporting dream has become a case of cold sweats and night terrors.
So give the man his dream back. And the kids in Pakistan, and those of us who are still kid enough to thrill to the sight of an inside-out cover drive, a reverse-swinging yorker, an underdog comeback.
I have a dream too. It’s simple, but at the moment, rather distant. Not of thirty-ball hundreds or ten-wicket innings.
I dream that one day we’ll watch Zulqarnain Haider walk back out to the middle of a cricket ground and take guard, ready to try and win a match without fear.
Geoff Lemon
Expert
"I will tell you the truth again. I strongly feel Zulqarnain was involved with the bookies." That's a fantastic basis for declaiming "the truth". Can you feel it in your waters? Does your knee swell up when crooked cricketers pass by? Also, how does a guy who has played one Test and four ODIs become the key 'man on the inside' for a bunch of bookies? I've rarely heard such ludicrous spouting, even on the internet. And who the hell are "Warrrrne" and "Jjjaadeja" and "rrrrhooohit"? Never heard of them. The Truth, if you want it, is that you should spend less time typing and more time thinking.
Sports Writer
Guest
Truth...do you listen to yourself?? If you are going to write rubbish like that I'd be covering my arse with a disclaimer attached, "I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about so please take no notice." Take your theories to the ICC and see what they have to say
dasilva
Guest
If you are going to make accusation then please put out links and source instead of just saying many people know about it. I'm pretty interested about the Ashes being tainted by match fixing as well as information linking Zulqarnain to English bookies. Or do you have insider information? Perhaps you can then talk to the authorities and dop Zulqarnain in if you know so much about it? to be fair, we don't know the truth behind the Zulqarnain story but what he is saying does seem quite plausible based on recent past actions by the Pakistan and comments from Geoff Lawson on how bookies are now starting to blackmail people to get there way. Of course he may have ulterior motives but time will tell what really happen. In any case, if he is part of English bookies as you claim. He now has the opportunity to confess and whistleblow the whole thing and help clean up the game. I have no doubt that there are illegal bookies in England who are used as liasons or assistance to the bookies back in India and Pakistan, and that in England may well be a popular meeting place for bookies but I doubt there is any sort of illegal betting syndicate that originate in the UK (if there is, I doubt there are that influential) The Shane Warne and Mark Waugh scandal that you were referring to was mostly overstated and people sometimes just say they match fix without it really been true. IT was a case of bookies trying to butter those two up with easy money by getting them cash for trivial information such as pitch and weather report with the hope of starting a relationship with them so in the future they may introduced them to match fix. Shane Warne and Mark Waugh were naive and probably deserved greater sanction then what they got and Cricket Australia didn't exactly handle it right but it's not a career ending crime as there was no fix and they shouldn't be tarnish with the reputation of match fixing that some people like to dish out.
Bayman
Guest
Truth, and I quote, "Whole world knows that Ashes is booked ball by ball, yet the media remains silent about it". Say what?? I've read all the Grimm Fairytales - which one is that comment in? As Willy S may have said, "I think you're protesting a bit too much, mate!" You wouldn't be a Pakistani, would you? Try as I might, I find it hard to believe that all along the problem has been English bookmakers. Warnie, incidentally, hasn't been involved for four years so I'm not sure he has too much influence these days - and I think it was "John" the Indian bookie, not "Sachin" the English bookie. As for Pakistan being targetted unnecessarily, well, the problem is that every time there's an issue with match fixing, spot fixing, ball tampering, or teams not returning to the field when they should, one of the teams involved is - how do I say this without inferring some guilt - Pakistan. Presumably, being Muslim must come with flexible ethics. No wonder Youhana changed sides. While I happily concede that for honest Pakistanis - there must be some - the thought that the world considers them to be cheats or worse, criminals, must be galling in the extreme. No issue there. It serves no great purpose, however, to spread the muck in the hope that Pakistan cricket will somehow be seen in a better light. It's way too late for that. You may baulk at the thought that the tradition of the Ashes makes it safe from bookie interference. I, however, believe it to be so. Pakistan, unfortunately, has no such traditional cricketing rivalry going back over a century so it clearly has no sense of loss where match-fixing is concerned - apart from the obviously appalling nature of such an event. The Ashes, though, is something else again. No Australian, and no Englishmen, would willingly want to lose a game to their oldest opponent and greatest rival. Should any player take such an action in an Ashes series you can guarantee he won't be treated as the Pakistani board have treated its problem children in the past. There'll be no slap on the wrist and being sent to bed without any supper. An Englishman and an Australian would be banned for life where match-fixing is concerned and nobody would try and defend their actions. Fans in Australia, and England I suspect, take the contest too seriously to just accept such behaviour and if CA did not take appropriate action the press, and the public, would crucify them. Now I don't know the circumstances of young Haider's situation but I'm not sure you're doing him, or Pakistan, any favours by trying to paint him as the villain and the "others" as the innocent bystanders. This, of course, is the typical official response from Pakistan which is why they have absolutely no credibility throughout the cricketing world. Pakistan is a head-case and has been for some time. Its recent leadership, on and off the field has been an embarrassment and a disgrace - no Butts about it! So, Truth, I can accept that being a Pakistan supporter these days brings with it a daily dose of pain and misery but attempting to paint the rest of the world with the same brush does not diminish Pakistan's sins. Ijaz Butt has already tried, and failed, to do what you are trying to do in your blog. If you wish to maintain any credibility, please, don't take you lead from that fool Butt.
Truth
Guest
Dasilva, please try to understand what I am trying to say. English bookies have strong connection throughout the world. I completely agree that Indian bookies are most powerful, pakistani bookies are no less, but they all have got their sanctuary in England. Take for example Ashes. It is not necessarrily booked by English bookies but if Indian bookies offer them substantial amount through their men like Warrrrne; it gets boooked. Whole world knows that Ashes is booked ball by ball, yet the media remains silent about it; but people start targetting pakistan unnecessarily, on the basis of suspicions. Players like Jjjaadeja and rrrrhooohit are their Indian links. What I am trying to say is that Zulqarnain is not a hero; but a villian.
dasilva
Guest
Seriously, I'm quite sure there are illegal betting in England but I doubt they have that much influence especially in comparison with the legal betting in England and the illegal betting in India and Pakistan. When betting is legalised, it becomes regulated and therefore safeguards to prevent unethical practices such as match fixing etc. People who want to run unregulated betting rings have far less influence because they have to compete with legitimate betting agency which completely reduced their influence and monetary income . After all, why would an average gambler bet in a illegal betting syndicate when there is a more easily accessible betting in legal betting companies. In countries where betting is illegal, what end up happening is that the profession is taken over by criminal underworld who end up using their influence ot extort, bribe, and threaten people to get their own way. That's when we get criminal gangs trying to manipulate sporting results for their own self-interest. Let say this , try to put money on the exact delivery of the no ball and I doubt any legal betting agency will accept your bet because they will suspect it would be suspicious. However illegal betting agency will accept these types of bet because they aren't regulated. All those illegal bookies, the last thing they want is for government to legalised gambling (same with drug dealers who wouldn't want the drug they are dealing to become legal as it will bring the price down and then have to compete with big corporation selling the drug legitimately) The idea that there are 850 legal betting shops in UK and then infer by that there must be plenty more influential illegal betting syndicate isn't exactly good logic.
Truth
Guest
I will tell you the truth again. I strongly feel Zulqarnain was involved with the bookies, and he had been given certain tasks by the bookies(probably English bookies, as most of cricket betting takes place in England; there are more than 850 legal betting shops in England; you can well imagine the extent of illegal betting in England). All the SA-Pak matches were going on as usual i.e. fixed. Now we all know ICC came with a declaration form and made the players to sign it. Zulqarnain probably panicked after finding out the strong punishments in UAE and Dubai. ICC also has plans of undercover agents and Anti-corruption unit. Death sentence is still applicable in Dubai and India; so he thought it best to run back to heaven of betting; i.e. England. Afridi said " Haider is childish"; but afridi must note that if caught it will be serious problem in Dubai. Dubai is not England or SA.
dasilva
Guest
Perhaps this extortion and blackmail from fixers been happening for a while From Geoff Lawson who was actually talking about Amir http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/easy-to-overstep-the-mark-when-players-families-lives-are-at-stake-20100830-147f7.html Earlier that day, a player who we had not selected for the game approached me, saying: ''I was told I would be playing tomorrow.'' My response was, ''Well no, you're not, you've obviously been given the wrong information.'' Then the skipper of the side called me late in the evening. I went to his room and he was standing there with a very sombre-looking selector. This selector said: ''We must pick [the player who had earlier approached me], I have been told that if he is not in the team tomorrow, my daughter will be kidnapped and I will not see her again.''
dasilva
Guest
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/392532.html Apparently this match according to Zulqarnain Haider is fixed. Just looking at the scorecard shows one of the most blatant fixes you can ever see. "Apparently, Haider, who had led the Lahore team in the national one-day competition until that match, refused to be part of a conspiracy to “fix” the game as National Bank, one of the strongest and most influential teams on the domestic circuit, needed to win it and improve their run-rate to qualify for the final. What transpired in the match was highly debatable as the Lahore team first scored 122 in 40.3 overs, with Haider getting out for a duck and then National Bank responded with 123 for no loss in only 6.1 overs. Salman Butt, who is currently suspended by the ICC for his alleged role in the spot-fixing scandal in England in August, scored 92 from just 25 balls hitting an amazing 16 fours and four sixes at the LCCA ground. The talking point was that Lahore fielded a pacer Usman Sarwar, who conceded 78 runs in three overs, and that match remains his only game for Lahore till date. The Lahore Eagles sacked Haider as captain on the eve of the game, apparently because he refused to pick particular players for the match. Haidar specifically objected to the inclusion of a right-arm fast bowler called Usman Sarwar, who had never played for the team before. Although questions were raised , the PCB later said it had found no evidence of foul play.."
Geoff Lemon
Expert
Mr Truth, I also read the the Illuminati are actually shape-shifting reptiles seeking new supplies of mono-atomic gold to facilitate imposing a global fascist state. Your comment makes about as much sense. If he's "acting at the behest of bookies", why would those bookies want him to vacate his place in the team, run across the world, and publicly denounce the match-fixers following Pakistan around the globe? That's not so much a chain of logic as a logical black hole.
Truth
Guest
Look English bookies have their players in every team of the world, and Zulqarnain is their agent in pakistan. No need to project him as hero, he may be acting at the behest of English bookies. Remember 850 betting shops in England alone. No wonder there are no takers for Ashes.
Phil Osopher
Guest
Imagine being in that wicket keepers position and having no one to go to for help. It's like a classic movie script formula: honest guy, problem, surrounded by crooks or fools, helpless. I totally admire what he did, very brave. The PCB appear to be useless and probably tied up in it - if I'm allowed conspiracy theory. The ICC should be doing everything they can to help him but they seem little interested. Its a very wierd and cruel world at times. I cant believe cricket is actually surviving with all this going on. Obviously corruption has dug right in - I can't believe its just Pakistan involved, its just getting a little out of control and obvious there - yet we seem to want to just continue on pretending everything is alright. I simply don't get it.
Geoff Lemon
Expert
The wages thing is certainly an issue, SW - Pakistan has the second-lowest paid players behind Bangladesh, and both those two nations pay far, far below the next on the list. However the shock in this case has been that the money is not the foremost motivation. The fixers are happy to use threats to get players into line, then pay them as a sweetener and a means of implicating them to the point where they can't blow the whistle. It's a terrifying development, really.
Sports Writer
Guest
A tragic story and perhaps sadly another nail in the coffin of Pakistan cricket. In my opinion it should be the ICC who makes a move and a big one at that, to try and prevent any more of these stories in world cricket. Why not sit down and take a good hard look at what these players are getting paid to play professional cricket? If the ICC applied a minimum wage for all professional players around the world, players like the Pakistan ones would not be tempted to take these bribes. In Haider's case the way PCB has handled it is a disgrace, and maybe it's up to the ICC to take control. I know if I was a young Pakistani boy at the moment the last thing I would want to do is play cricket for my country.
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
A thought-provoking and balanced story, Geoff. My heart bleeds for the honest pakistani cricketers. They are in a lose-lose situation. They deserve sympathy and support, not censure and outright exclusion.