Debris
International 12th Man
OK, thought it was obvious but I clearly need to point out the difference and why the Pakistani offence is so much worse.There is no evidence whatsoever that the Pakistanis were trying to fix a match
What they did was the equivalent of a pitcher throwing a "ball" in baseball or a tennis player serving a fault in tennis at completely inconsequential times and it had absolutely no chance of affecting the outcome of the match
However, if Prior had "gotten away" with his actions the other night, it may well have done
If it proven that they money to bowl no balls without duress, then ban them
But banning them for life is the equivalent of sentencing someone to death for minor assault and the threat of jail just proves it is a witch-hunt IMO
The most basic principle of team sports is that each team will try their best to win a game. Anything which disrupts this destroys the credibility of the game as it degrades the concept of the game as a contest. This makes it the most serious possible offence as it is attacking the core of the game.
Breaking the rules to try and help your team to win is considered a much lesser offence. We see this sort of thing all the time in team sport and there are specified penalties in place to deal with them. Send-offs and penalties are usually considered sufficient.
The Pakistani players are not being charged for deliberately bowling a no-ball, they are being charged with not trying their best to win a game. This is the most serious offence in the game, much worse than drug-taking or ball-tampering or anything else you care to name, because it attacks the concept of a team sport being a contest and the credibility of the game. Most people will not watch a game if they don't believe the contest is genuine.
There is an Australian rugby league player basically accused of the same thing as these players. Just to give you an idea of how seriously these offences are considered, he is possibly looking at jail time (partly because he lied about it) so it is not just cricket.
It may seem like a minor offence on the surface but if you are going to bowl a no-ball for money(and a wicket could have fallen off that ball), what else are you prepared to do? There have already been suggestions of more blatant offences being committed. It is particularly insidious because so hard to detect. And they knew how serious it was and what the penalties were before they did it so really no sympathy.
If you can't tell, I get very angry when people try to assassinate my favourite game.
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