Better hair than Kohli.What are people's views on Herschelle Gibbs?
Really? So pumping yourself full of performance enhancing drugs in order to get a leg up on the opposition, "cheating" if you will, is not as bad as bowling a couple of deliberate no-balls? Okay .I don't view either of those anywhere near as bad as fixing from a ban perspective.
Bowling metre long no-balls?On balance, as a fan of the game, I want him back in whites and doing his thing.
Yep, that's my position. Cheating is not anywhere near as bad as deliberately under-performing as far as I'm concerned.Really? So pumping yourself full of performance enhancing drugs in order to get a leg up on the opposition, "cheating" if you will, is not as bad as bowling a couple of deliberate no-balls? Okay .
Interesting opinion. I assume it's because the cheater is trying to win and the under-performer is not?Yep, that's my position. Cheating is not anywhere near as bad as deliberately under-performing as far as I'm concerned.
Indeed. There's lot of cheating in every sport I can think of. Some cheating is obviously more detrimental to the fairness of the game and is therefore given bigger deterrents, but from a purely moral perspective I don't think there's really a difference between taking performance-enhancing drugs and appealing for lbw when you know a batsman has got an inside edge, or not walking when you know you're out. Most professionals are going to cheat if they think they can get away with it; it's just a risk/reward analysis.Interesting opinion. I assume it's because the cheater is trying to win and the under-performer is not?
Not really.As an aside, it's a pretty arbitrary cut off with what counts as a 'performance enhancing drug' and what's just 'modern sports science,' when you think about it.
Sorry the drugs/lbw comparison is absurdIndeed. There's lot of cheating in every sport I can think of. Some cheating is obviously more detrimental to the fairness of the game and is therefore given bigger deterrents, but from a purely moral perspective I don't think there's really a difference between taking performance-enhancing drugs and appealing for lbw when you know a batsman has got an inside edge, or not walking when you know you're out. Most professionals are going to cheat if they think they can get away with it; it's just a risk/reward analysis.
Deliberately under-performing is a whole different thing though. Perverse incentives just ruin the concept of sport entirely for me.
you're not really sorry.Sorry the drugs/lbw comparison is absurd
That's a pretty lame rationalization for blatantly unfair cheating. But speaking of "risk/reward", I don't consider deliberately bowling a few no-balls anywhere in the same moral plane as fixing an entire match and under-performing. Using your own logic, "Most professionals are going to spot-fix if they think they can get away with it" and as long as their actions are fairly minor and inconsequential in deciding a match. Too much money for doing very little. They could always say that it's no different than deliberately scoring slowly to help opponents you would prefer to beat progress, as certain teams did in the 1999 World Cup and other ODI tournaments. In the end I could say that it's the fault and sole problem of the betting firms which offer spot-bets in the first place. Hell, they could even rationalize the deliberate no-balls as not really any different morally than not stretching to cut of a ball because they don't want to risk getting injured. Both actions are ways of "under-performing".Indeed. There's lot of cheating in every sport I can think of. Some cheating is obviously more detrimental to the fairness of the game and is therefore given bigger deterrents, but from a purely moral perspective I don't think there's really a difference between taking performance-enhancing drugs and appealing for lbw when you know a batsman has got an inside edge, or not walking when you know you're out. Most professionals are going to cheat if they think they can get away with it; it's just a risk/reward analysis.
Deliberately under-performing is a whole different thing though. Perverse incentives just ruin the concept of sport entirely for me.