Cricket corruption must be rooted out

CRICKET’S image has once again been dragged through the mud after CSA banned four players for breaching its anti-corruption code.

Ever since Hansie Cronje was slapped with a life ban in 2000 cricket has battled with its once proud image.

It is not only South Africa which has had to deal with breaches but the disease has spread its nasty, long-reaching tentacles throughout the cricketing world.

It is all good and well dealing with the offenders, but the sport now faces the very real danger of losing its credibility with fans who pay to watch matches.

After the Cronje affair, many people vowed they would not set foot in a cricket stadium again, because they could no longer trust what was happening out in the middle as the real deal.

This continued breaching of the corruption code will only increase skepticism among the fans who are the lifeblood of the game and are already abandoning the sport in big numbers.

Take for example the decision by CSA to ban the four players this week.

The bans range from sevento 12-year sentences as cricket tried to send out a message that it will not tolerate this sort of behaviour.

The men banished from the game are Thami Tsolekile (12 years), Jean Symes (seven years), Phumi Matshikwe and Ethy Mbhalati (both 10 years).

Their sentences follow Gulam Bodi’s 20-year sanction which was imposed on the former Proteas cricketer in February.

The question now is whether CSA has been light-handed in dealing with offenders and whether life bans would have been more appropriate under the circumstances.

Even a 12-year ban would allow the culprit to resume playing or enter the coaching world once the sentence has been served.

Is this the sort of character you would want involved in playing, coaching or even administration structures?

This where he may come into contact with many others he could influence.

As hard as it may sound, life may be the only way cricket can remove this cancer from its system.

But the way ahead for cricket will not be easy because many feel the newest culprits to have been exposed are merely the tip of an iceberg of deceit and corruption.