I read somewhere (and I sincerely believe) that the bond between a sportsman/woman and a fan is sacred. The fan derives hope, inspiration and joy from watching the sportsperson, the underlying and obvious assumption being that he/she plays with all guts giving it everything. In return the sportsperson gets the fan's unconditional support and trust. I might occasionally get angry or disappointed with my favorite cricketer (after all they are human) but I would never ever ever lose faith in him. No sportsperson has the right to abuse this precious trust of a fan.
After the horrendous cricket fixing scandals of 2000 and more recently 2010, when that article, which originated from Sun newspaper, got published worldwide about how fixing was rampant in cricket, use of beautiful women to lure cricketers etc, I felt sick in the stomach to think that there was even a possibility that this kind of thing is the 'norm' in a sport that I have followed since I was a small kid, a sport that I invest so much of my time, emotions and thoughts on. It would be a slap on the face and extremely hurtful for fans like you and me to discover one day that those matches for which you skipped school/college/work for, for which you would wake up to an alarm clock on the first ring no matter what God forbidden hour of the day it was and the players for whom you were willing to endure roller-coaster emotions during the course of their career and for whom you were ready to get into heated debates in a heartbeat or even fist fights for that matter were nothing but a part of a money generating, pre determined conspiracy.
For my part, I don't believe a word of what those idiotic oafs (bookies) have claimed but somehow I do know that if one day overwhelming evidence is found of fixing in international matches featuring high-profile cricketers I adore and respect, I would feel so betrayed and disrespected as a shareholder of the game that I will stop following cricket from that moment. I think fans may be able to come to terms with doping scandals involving their favourite athletes because although it is totally not justifiable, one can at least say that the athlete's actions were governed by the burning desire to win. But throwing away matches purely based on greed under the noses of enthusiastic, passionate fans is plain revolting.
For my part, I don't believe a word of what those idiotic oafs (bookies) have claimed but somehow I do know that if one day overwhelming evidence is found of fixing in international matches featuring high-profile cricketers I adore and respect, I would feel so betrayed and disrespected as a shareholder of the game that I will stop following cricket from that moment. I think fans may be able to come to terms with doping scandals involving their favourite athletes because although it is totally not justifiable, one can at least say that the athlete's actions were governed by the burning desire to win. But throwing away matches purely based on greed under the noses of enthusiastic, passionate fans is plain revolting.
I might sound sentimental and idealistic but I 100% agree with those experts who say that any cricketer caught fixing should be banned for life irrespective of age, circumstance, country etc because such a person could never regain the trust of even his once most ardent of followers. Every no ball, wide, dropped catch, runs scored, runs conceded etc would be viewed with incredible amount of suspicion. And I do not think it is fair for a cricket fan (and to a much lesser extent, the player....yeah, i know i'm nasty) to be expected to go through this.
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