Administrators not doing enough to arrest cricket corruption: Ian Chappell

As details emerge of former New Zealand player Lou Vincentrsquos plea bargain and confession of fixing the same thought keeps recurring ldquoThe officials donrsquot take the issue of corruption seriously enoughrdquo Four years ago a frustrated Shane Watson blurted out his lament ldquoMaybe they ICC donrsquot want to get to the bottom of it fixing because it might run too deeprdquoIf you think Watson was being overly skeptical Irsquove put together a telltale jigsaw puzzle titled lsquoThe officialsrsquo track recordrsquo The Australian Cricket Board covered up details when Mark Waugh and Shane Warne took money from a bookie for pitch and weather information back in 1995Australian legspinner Shane Warne left and teammate Mark Waugh speak to the media on January 8 1999 after it was revealed that they accepted money from an Indian bookmaker to provide pitch and weather information during Australiarsquos 1995 tour of Sri Lanka PicAFPIn the late 1990s there were whispers of shady characters hanging around the Indian dressing room during Sharjah matches Not long afterwards captain Mohammed Azharuddin and batsman Ajay Jadeja were banned for their involvement in fixing Following those bans there were strong rumours circulating that further investigations had been halted because officials were worried the Indian team would be decimated I confess to wondering at the time mdash just like Watson did years later mdash if the abandonment had something to do with the depth of the corruptionJustice Qayyumrsquos reportThere was the thorough and illuminating report of Justice Qayyum into the Salim Malik affair and other fixing controversies in Pakistan cricket Despite the Judgersquos hardhitting summary that report has largely been ignored by officials And itrsquos not only the Pakistan officials who failed to take notice read Qayyumrsquos report and take note of the names of some international coaches appointed and interviewed for jobs in recent years Then go through some of the recent ICC Hall of Fame inductees itrsquos illuminatingThen came the Hansie Cronje affair While Cronje was banished in disgrace the fall out didnrsquot stop there Two players Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams received sixmonth bans but the former returned to international cricket and enjoyed a successful career Other members of Cronjersquos team who attended the infamous meeting to decide if a game lsquoshould be fixedrsquo have gone on to have careers in and around cricketBobrsquos suspicious deathTherersquos the not so small matter of Bob Woolmerrsquos suspicious death Coach of South Africa during Cronjersquos discredited reign and then in charge of Pakistan during a limp 2007 World Cup campaign Woolmer died in Jamaica in very strange circumstances I donrsquot doubt Woolmer wasnrsquot involved in any scandal but it wouldnrsquot surprise me if he was about to reveal some misgivings I DO doubt his death was due to natural causesWith controversy raging over fixing in the game of cricket the ICC had an executive member who was president of his countryrsquos Board while he was a bookmaker Surely given the prevailing atmosphere and the need to send a strong message to the crooks this was at best a misjudgmentAnother misjudgment involved Englandrsquos unusually cozy reception at Lordrsquos and acceptance of substantial funding from later convicted fraudster Allen Stanford The man photographed welcoming Stanfordrsquos helicopter to Lordrsquos was Giles Clarke chairman of the ECB Recently he was a major player in the revamping of the ICC which substantially raised the profile of the big three mdash India Australia and EnglandWhile Clarkersquos involvement with Stanford was purely a failure to do proper due diligence another member of the lsquobig threersquo N Srinivasan has been stripped of his BCCI presidency by the Indian Supreme Court However their concern over his involvement or otherwise in the Chennai Super Kings scandal isnrsquot shared by the ICC who have him listed as the incoming presidentGiven the damning information overheard in cricket corridors mdash even without cocking an ear mdash and Ed Hawkinsrsquo informative publication ldquoBookie Gambler Fixer Spyrdquo the officials are hard pressed to claim lack of available information as a defenceMany of Vincentrsquos allegations involve T20 matches which should concern administrators considering the high value placed on that format to fortify the gamersquos financial futureThe officials erred by not adopting a zero tolerance policy on corruption from the outset Despite many dire warnings since they still havenrsquot elevated their sights