Vincent’s old coach upset
Lou Vincent’s alleged match-fixing at English county Sussex has left his former team-mates and coach ‘‘sickened’’ and ‘‘disgusted’’.
Sussex cricket bosses, unhappy their club has been dragged into a worldwide corruption scandal, have vented their anger after the former Black Caps batsman and another former Sussex player, Naved Arif, were charged with corruption last week by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
Sussex coach Mark Robinson told British media about the pain he felt on discovering two of his former charges had allegedly been engaged in corruption.
Vincent was charged by the ECB with 14 offences, relating to two county cricket matches he played for Sussex in 2011. Arif was charged with six offences.
‘‘It’s devastating,’’ Robinson said. ‘‘The whole club is hurting. We are all deeply shocked about the recent allegations made against games involving Sussex.
‘‘The players’ ethos is built on a will to win.
‘‘The thought that anybody among us, at any time, may have been working against that aim sickens and disgusts us.’’
Sussex skipper Ed Joyce described Vincent and Arif as ‘‘alleged bad apples’’.
‘‘There’s a lot of anger in the dressing-room,’’ he said.
‘‘That’s the problem when you get a couple of alleged bad apples in your team and people start to question things you do.
‘‘Everything we do as a professional cricket team is about winning games. To think that there could be people in your midst who are doing everything they can not to win games is the worst thing you can do to a sports team.’’
After being charged last week, the former New Zealand international’s lawyer released a statement saying: ‘‘He will work through these and the process for dealing with the charges as required by the ECB.
‘‘He further confirms the charges arise from the matters he has disclosed to the authorities, and he remains accountable for his actions of the past.
‘‘The fact of the charges, and more are likely, dispel any notions of a plea bargain having been done as unfortunately appears to be wrongly suggested by others.’’
But Vincent’s old county coach Robinson is still unhappy about what took place during the batsman’s time at Sussex.
‘‘You recruit players and it doesn’t say on their CV, ‘I’m a match-fixer’,’’ Robinson said.
‘‘If that’s what they are – because no-one’s been found guilty.
‘‘It’s an impossible situation, isn’t it?
‘‘As soon as the club found anything was happening, everything was put into place.’’
Meanwhile, former New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns was understood to have been interviewed by British police in London regarding their investigation into allegations of corruption.
Cairns, who has vehemently denied any involvement in matchfixing, was also expected to meet the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) anti-corruption investigators.
The one-time Black Cap left New Zealand on Saturday, bound for England where he had arranged to speak to British police.