The Impact of Illegal Betting on UK Cricket

Last year UK cricket fans were only to happy to scorn at disgraced and subsequently jailed Pakistani cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir who were convicted on an illegal betting conspiracy to bowl no-balls at a Test match at Lord's in 2010, but now UK cricket betting irregularities have hit the home front.

Cricket fans across the United Kingdom were both disappointed and outraged last week when story broke about how 23-year-old former Essex fast bowler Mervyn Westfield admitted to accepting £6,000 in exchange for giving away a pre-agreed number of runs - known as 'spot fixing' - in the first over of a Pro40 game at Durham in September 2009.

While - unfortunately - match-fixing and spot-fixing is nothing new to most sports, especially international cricket, this is the first time England's domestic cricket scene has been thrown so blatantly under the spotlight, because it begs the question that if Westfield was involved, how many other English cricketers are potentially on the take?

Westfield Admitted He was Paid for Spot-Fixing

Westfield was arrested in May 2010 after his former team-mate Tony Palladino, raised concerns about the game in question with Essex captain Mark Pettini and team coach Paul Grayson. Westfield reportedly showed Palladino a big wad of cash and actually admitted that it was for the purpose of spot-fixing in a previous county match.

Although it is unknown who exactly profited from the arrangement with Westfield, it is thought that the spot-fixing was aimed at paying off betting fans based outside the UK. Perhaps what is most shocking about Westfield's admission is how he brought corruption into the 'gentleman's game' of cricket at a domestic level.

When the bowler chose to accept money to bowl poorly, he wasn't doing so to sway a crucial Test match with hundreds of millions of pounds in national and international bets riding on it, but to sway a lowly attended county match that just happened to beamed live around the world courtesy of ECB's agreement with ESPN Star.

Of course, there is no excuse for match or spot-fixing at any level of any sport, but it won't be lost on most people that illegal betting has now - officially - been found to have infiltrated domestic cricket in the UK, which is sad on so many different levels, not least because it shows how much money there is to be made via spot-fixing.

It's Hard to Imagine Westfield Acted on His Own

If a 'random' county match and the players in its teams can be so easily corrupted by unscrupulous betting agents, what hope does the rest of the UK cricket fraternity have? It's hard to imagine that Westfield acted on his own and is the only English country cricket player to have been wooed over to the dark side by persuasive criminals.

In fact, according to England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) information officer, Chris Watts, a former police detective with decades of experience, and member of the ECB's recently launched anti-corruption, education and security unit, the risks of corruption are greater in the domestic game than the international arena, because county players are paid far less than their national team counterparts, and are thus more tempted by cash payouts.

However, in an attempt to combat corruption and illegal betting practices in the UK's domestic and international cricket arenas, the ECB, in association with the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA), are hoping education programs highlighting the risks of corruption, along with case studies of convicted cricketers, will help dissuade young players from making career-ending choices for supposedly easy money.

 Posted by Anton Johan at 11:42 on 18 January 2012