Cricket so far has seen some great players who are destined to be remembered less for their heroics on the field and more for corrupt wrongdoings that shocked the world.
The latest of them is Mohammed Ashraful who confessed to his involvement in the match fixing scandal in the second edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) and was suspended by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) from any type of cricket till investigations into the matter were complete. It seems likely that Ashraful’s career is headed in the same direction as a few greats who came before him.
Salim Malik’s involvement in match-fixing was exposed in the media in 1999 and career was soon over. The next year, in the year 2000, South African Hansie Cronje, who was considered by many to be the best captain in the world at the time, was found guilty of match-fixing and banned for life in a turn of events that left cricket followers the world over stunned.
Cronje died soon after he was found out and thus ended the saga of the most impressive captain world cricket has ever seen.
The next body blow came when the highly respected player and one of the most successful captains of India, Mohammed Azharuddin was found to be involved in match fixing, along with another talented India player, Ajay Jadeja. Azharuddin was banned for life while Jadeja was given a five year ban which ended his career.
Almost ten years later, the world came to know of how “match-fixing” had evolved into “spot-fixing”. Three of Pakistan’s leading cricketers – skipper Salman Butt, paceman Mohammed Asif and promising fast bowler Mohammed Amir – were caught pre-arranging the bowling of no-balls at specific points of the Lords Test in England in 2010.
The three were banned for the game and also jailed in England for accepting bribes in an incident that brought shame to cricketers all over the world.
With cricket recovering from this latest incident, Indian fast bowler S. Sreesanth along with three other cricketers were found guilty of spot-fixing during the 2013 IPL, and they too were jailed for their actions.
The game might have its dark spots, but at least Bangladesh had not been touched by all the scandals. All that changed earlier in the year when Test cricket’s youngest ever centurion and one of the most gifted players to ever come out of the country, Mohammed Ashraful confessed to being involved in fixing during the second edition of the BPL, as well as in international matches over the years.
After a comprehensive investigation, eight others in addition to Ashraful have been charged with wrong doing in the second BPL, shocking the country – and the game.
