Fixing Scandal!!!!!

[viriya]

Why isn't this headline news on cricinfo? I would think people care less about a new PCB head and a pointless T20 preview?

 

[BeeGee]

Why isn't this headline news on cricinfo? I would think people care less about a new PCB head and a pointless T20 preview?

Cairns threatened to sue them last time they posted a disparaging story about him. They ended up apologizing to him for it.

They may be a little cautious this time round.

 

[hendrix]

As long as they maintain that these are allegations, I don't see what the problem is.

 

[RxGM]

Stuff have not updated with the herald statement either. I imagine they are all still at the lawyers. Good on Cleaver for putting his balls on the line.

 

[straw man]

Why isn't this headline news on cricinfo? I would think people care less about a new PCB head and a pointless T20 preview?

Cricinfo shows different headlines depending on which part of the world you are in - the match-fixing articles are indeed the number one story when I look at cricinfo.

 

[viriya]

Cricinfo shows different headlines depending on which part of the world you are in - the match-fixing articles are indeed the number one story when I look at cricinfo.

weird, it's not in the USA edition.. I guess I should switch to "Global"

 

[SteveNZ]

Stuff have not updated with the herald statement either. I imagine they are all still at the lawyers. Good on Cleaver for putting his balls on the line.

Cleav is a pro, there's not many of them around anymore. Certainly not at Stuff.

I'll still call this guy Mr X seeing he is insisting he's a clean skin...I'm going to go ahead and trust Brendon (not to mention the several other players including Chandighar team-mates) on this one. Not certain of why it wasn't reported at the time or why Brendon would have any interest in wanting to know how the Dubai scheme works but I'm not seeing the logic in the NZ captain, who is now a lauded figure in this country, making up an accusation such as this.

 

[straw man]

Decent opinion piece on this by Paul Ford of the Beige Brigade.

 

[Bahnz]

I reckon Ford has a good claim to being the best cricket writer in NZ. Always love his stuff and this piece is no exception.

 

[jcas0167]

So where does this go now?

a) sue NZ Herald?

b) allow ICC investigation to run its course

c) confess

 

[Bahnz]

If Cairns confesses, he'll essentially be admitting to perjury in the London High Court, which I imagine would entail some fairly significant jail time (as well as another lawsuit with Lalit Modi). So I think we can probably rule that out.

 

[hendrix]

Decent opinion piece on this by Paul Ford of the Beige Brigade.

yup:

I feel sad that New Zealand Cricket has become obsessed with pointing out that none of the games under investigation involved the national team or were played in New Zealand. If the dodgy dealings involve actions by players with ties to New Zealand, depressingly that is enough to cast a pall over the game in this country.

Exactly. I really hate seeing defensiveness around these issues. We don't need defensiveness. I'm not interested in seeing NZC save face. That's the least important thing here. We need open mindedness and a commitment to getting to the bottom of it, no matter how much controversy that causes.

 

[SteveNZ]

So where does this go now?

a) sue NZ Herald?

b) allow ICC investigation to run its course

c) confess

I'm not sure a) is applicable, given the Herald are not likely to be falsely accusing of him of anything. They are simply stating that he is the Player X being named by Brendon in a statement to the ICC, which we all imagine will be revealed to be true.

b) will certainly happen, and we can guess that c) will follow at a later date.

 

[Bahnz]

Latest update from Cairns:

Cairns denies Player X allegations - Sport - NZ Herald News

 

[wellAlbidarned]

yeah not a fan. Anyway the 2012 matches were supposedly well beyond when he'd recovered and largely dealt with his mental health problems.

Mental health problems never truly go away for many. What tends to happen is you pretend they have to shut everyone the **** up but it always comes back to the surface.

 

[Meridio]

I reckon Ford has a good claim to being the best cricket writer in NZ. Always love his stuff and this piece is no exception.

Jeremy Wells too. And Dylan Cleaver is good, though he doesn't focus on cricket so much these days.

Anyway, not surprised in the slightest about the (alleged, etc) identity of Mr X, given what has been going on in the last six months or so. Heard a few rumours about him when I was playing in Wellington too. It's sickening.

 

[Skyliner]

What is extraordinary in all of this that the ICC still have not interviewed Cairns, when we are talking about an incident from 2008 - in regards to Brendon McCullum's testimony - and a mountain of information from Lou Vincent.

 

[Bahnz]

Mental health problems never truly go away for many. What tends to happen is you pretend they have to shut everyone the **** up but it always comes back to the surface.

While I agree that mental health issues never fully go way, I would disagree fairly strongly with your statement that people who've recovered from mental illness are "pretending" that they're fine. When you're suffering from acute depression, there's no way to pretend that you're OK - in many cases people in a bad place are literally unable to even get out of bed. A better analogy could perhaps be drawn with cancer, where just because the disease has gone inte remission and you've recovered doesn't mean that you're permanently cured.

 

[Meridio]

Exactly. I really hate seeing defensiveness around these issues. We don't need defensiveness. I'm not interested in seeing NZC save face. That's the least important thing here. We need open mindedness and a commitment to getting to the bottom of it, no matter how much controversy that causes.

Yes, I completely agree with this. But remember we are dealing with David White, who proved during the Taylor captaincy saga that he has zero integrity. He'll be more concerned with protecting the BLACKCAPS (tm) brand than actually doing anything that is right for cricket.

 

[Bahnz]

What is extraordinary in all of this that the ICC still have not interviewed Cairns, when we are talking about an incident from 2008 - in regards to Brendon McCullum's testimony - and a mountain of information from Lou Vincent.

It's quite possible that the Chandigarh Lions leak is part of a much wider investigation into match-fixing in T20, and that only those certain details likely to have the biggest impact in the media have been leaked. Another possibility is that the ICC wanted to leave X's interview until they'd tapped all of their potential informant sources, so that they could spring all of their accusations on him at once - and that way give him no time to come up with explanations/rationalisations, as I'm sure he will be now.