Who knows how many black sheep are embedded in game?
The ICC handing out 8year bans to former Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak and former Sri Lanka all-rounder Dilhara Lokuhettige last week is a grim reminder that cricket is still not totally free, as imagined, of match/spot fixing and corruption.
While the attention of the world was focused on the Indian Premier League, these two cases showed why cricket administrators — ICC and by extension all affiliated cricket boards — have an onerous task ahead in freeing the sport of this malaise.
While Lokuhettige may not register on everybody’s radar, he is still an ex-international having played 11 white ball matches for Sri Lanka in early and mid-2010s. In 2019, he was charged with corruption after being featured in a sting expose by Al Jazeera TV facilitating and promoting corruption in a T10 tournament in the UAE in 2017.
Lokuhettige’s 8-year ban by the ICC announced holds him guilty of being party to fix or influence matches solicit or entice other players into corruption, fail to disclose to the ACU approaches made to him by bookies. The third charge, one might say, is superfluous in the context of the other two.
Even more damaging for the sport was Heath Streak’s involvement in corruption. Streak is a Zimbabwean cricketing legend, arguably his country’s greatest cricketer and at his peak, among the best players in the world. As captain, he was widely respected for his inspiration leadership, and his own strong performances.
Why someone with such sterling credentials get sucked into corruption — for a couple of bitcoins, a fancy cellphone and some pieces of silver — is shocking, but also brings about a sense of déja vu.
The 2000-match fixing scam, it might be recalled, featured some of the biggest names in cricket then. Even the best can succumb to temptation. Greed, after all, is one of the tragedies of the human condition. Before these two cases, Sanath Jayasuriya copped a twoyear ban and Shakib Al Hasan one year ban from the ICC. Both these are stellar names in the game
Streak has admitted to five breaches of the ICC’s anti-corruption code. At the crux was his association with a bookie, Mr X (name not disclose), to whom he passed inside information and introduced him to players (four, including a national captain), all with the aim of influencing matches.
What’s alarming is that Streak’s unholy shenanigans with Mr X stretched over 15 months starting from September 2017, and spread over tournaments like the Bangladesh Premier League, Afghanistan Premier League, 2018 tri-series involving Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and
Afghanistan, 2018 Afghanistan and Zimbabwe series, and IPL 2018 when he was bowling coach of KKR.
The sweep of Streak’s misdemeanours highlights the monumental challenge cricket faces. With white ball tournaments and leagues cropping up all over the world, it is not just players, but also franchise owners/management (as the IPL scam of 2013 showed), and support staff now as well, that are above suspicion.
Who knows how many black sheep are embedded in the game?