A game of bet and bull?

Yet another nail in crickets coffin as three Pakistan players one agent and one journalist take centrestage in London where a trial is on to establish corruption charges and conspiracy to cheat The game has changed forever as the new lingo shows Hemal Ashar brings you the new A to Z of cricketA First it stood for bowling attack Today it stands for attorneys and lawyers Seems like the players have more need of those than cricketing skills B Bat and ball Forget it Talk betting and bookies These seem to have infiltrated the game There also seems to be another one brackets Games are fixed in brackets these days What is going on reallyWarned Shane Warne and Liz Hurley are crickets latest glam couple For better and for worse and this time maybe for good C It stood for cricket plain and simple But life and the game is not that simple C stands for courts now Currently the drama is being played out at the Southwark Crown Court in London D Delivery In cricket parlance that is a ball bowled Currently D stands for Deals Thats what the game seems to be all about these days player deals book deals and betting deals Hum deal de chuke sanamu00a0 E Effort Just a harmless word effort which meant how much effort was the player putting into his game has been replaced by the deadlier one evidence Recorded conversations and covert operations all designed to collect evidence to nail them F Stood for fans That is why they played the game they are the lifeline of the sport That lifeline is threatening to choke thanks to fixing Ever since Hansie Cronje spilt the beans cricket and fixing seem to go togetheru00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0In the past Kapil Dev had cried on national television during an interview in the wake of the fixing scam several years agou00a0G The bowler lets loose a googly to flummox the batsman That g though now stands for gangs Gang wars and gangsters are the latest in the cricketing lexicon The bible of cricket the Wisden should think about that Imagine Dawood gets more play than the real Don and shady sidekicks collect money on behalf ofu00a0 their bosses who run betting rings Geez this is cricketu00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0 H Could refer to hoick The massive swing by a batsman that sends the ball to some distance In these troubled times remember Hansieu00a0 Hansie Cronje former South African skipper who was caught by the Delhi cops and whose fixing revelations turned cricket upside down I International Cricket Council ICC crickets world governing body Today it may stand for of all things for Iceland Reports state that former Indian Premier League IPL boss Lalit Modi plans to get citizenship of Iceland Modis not speaking but that is what cricket is these days Intrigueu00a0 Yet another Iu00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0 J Jonty Rhodes the mercurial carrottopped fielder who defied gravity as he flew through the air stopping boundaries J now stands for Justice can the aggrieved fans get justice for some of the con games they have sat through Butt were innicent Salman Butt R Mohammad Asif L and Mohammad Aammer C three charged with corruption offences AFP PHOTO K Key moments in the game that was one of the favourite commentator phrases Currently K stands for Kaput Thats what a fans faith and trust already brittle after earlier fixing allegations has gone kaput How many times will cricket rebuild the faithu00a0 L Loser Earlier cricket was a game of win and lose Somebody wins somebody loses Now it is about Lucre Big money crores and moreu00a0 Is nothing sacred anymore Not even the religion of the Indian people cricket M Mercurial The adjective often used to describeu00a0 quick movers on the field M though now stands for so many things Mazhar Majeed player agent Mazhar Mahmood the journalist and of course mon ey Once speed and now greed N No balls A harmless enough term meaning that a bowler has overstepped while delivering the ball Today no ball is central in the fixing trial with allegations thatu00a0 players were paid to deliver no balls What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceiveu00a0 Flying through Jonty Rhodes former South African cricketer has spoken out about the current fixing fracas rocking the world O Over Six deliveries in an over is an over is an over The big O in cricket now is Operation Sting operations undercover operations or whatever The game and its players need radical surgery in honesty Does anybody know a surgeon who specializes in matters of the conscienceu00a0u00a0u00a0 P Players the cricketers who played the game while we watched Today the word is Pakistan The country perpetually embroiled in controversy takes centrestage during the current scam too Pak now no more whining about conspiracy theories and playing the victim Let the trial speak Q Quit Regularly heard in any sport so and so has quit the game Today it stands for Qayyum Commission which was formed by Pak earlier to investigate fixing Never fully implemented it is now relegated to the backburner The ICCs Anticorruption Unit needs to step in to save the game Quickly Another Q that isu00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0 R Runs Those numbers on the scoreboard that put you in the record books R also stands for Revelations deep and dark startling and shocking made in a courtroom as cricket followers hear about plots devious secrets and dubious deals These are as straight as jalebis and put spy thrillers in the shadeu00a0 SWhat else but swing bowling Sting A sting operation by a journalist has set the cat amongst the pigeons this time Now players need to watch out more for stings than swing A sad commentary on our times and the game when skill takes second place to all the shady side business going onu00a0 Speaking out Manoj Prabhakar l was one of the first to speak out about fixing M Azharuddin r was banned T Twenty20 It was crickets new age avataar fast and furious for a slambang generation which has little time for the nuances of the game T this time stands for Threats from the underworld from agents from plotters and those who claim they can make millions from the gameu00a0 U Understanding Players were complimented on their wonderful understanding of the game He reads the game so well signified high praise Who talks understanding these days Now it is about the underworld and undercover under the table sinister claims that make cricket more a field of gangsters smugglers looters and thugs rather than a game What next A murder in broad daylight on the cricket field Dont put it past themu00a0 V Venues stood for places where matches were going to be played They gave rise to debates about the state of the pitch Presently it stands for slippery substances like Vaseline They are slipped into players hands it is alleged during breaks allowing the ball to swing Do not be surprised to find cricket attireshod detectives pretending to be the twelfth men during drinks breaks one of these days watching out for Vaseline and more W The Wisden is the Bible of cricket with a record of history made on the field Today W stands for war matches now resemble war with antiaircraft guns and antiterror devices dotting grounds and security measures designed to choke the life out of the spectator Skies above grounds become nofly zones It is only batsmen who can take the aerial routeu00a0u00a0u00a0 X Xrated Earlier players and their bedroom sagas would be termed Xrated Now in these wicked times that is too tame Yawn who cares about who bowled a maiden over except perhaps when it is Shane Warne The Aussie leggie still regales the world with his sexting antics Now it is Elizabeth Hurley who he is engaged to Sigh When the entire cricket world is in tumult Warnies fixing other kinds of matchesu00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0 Y Yearly schedules of cricketers have been packed to the brim as there are no clearly defined cricketing seasons any longer Y though stands for Yuvraj dragged into the current controversy with agent Mazhar Majeed claiming to know him As if Yuvi was not controversial enough the sensationally talented player has this to contend with Yuvi ask mommy what to do now Z Zero or out for a duck The ultimate ignominy for a batsman is the sound of timber shattering behind him before the scoreboard starts ticking Now though if allegations continue to fly thick and fast and fixing smears only get more stubborn spectators would prefer to ZZZZZ take a nap rather than watch a fix ufffd oops six