Bookie approached Shane Watson twice

Posted by   on (August 31, 2010, 11:07 GMT)

When Pakistani player was attacked on field in Australia we haven't said its in Australian culture, or did we? name a single culture or religion which support evil? cricinfo staff you guys should edit this article and remove these unacceptable remarks about pakistanis, and lastly history of News of the World Paper; I bet that our bowlers will come out clean; these are just allegation and PCB will claim money for the damages and NOTW will pay in millions again as they did in past, in Cole case, david, victoria, Pitt, Angelina and many others;

"Whether it's in their culture I don't know" is NOT a racist comment. Culture & Race are not the same thing. People of the same Race can be in or come from a different culture. People of a different Races can be part of the same Culture. I hope the accusations of racism against Watson are merely a honest misunderstanding & not something more sinister such as racism against Watson because of his skin colour.

@demon_bowler - " it is not racist to suggest that corruption is endemic in Pakistani culture". Yes the problem exists. But that is not an acceptable excuse for the Pakistani players. On the same merits, can we say racism and arrogance exists in Australian culture. What do you do about it? On each incidence, you generalize it and blame it on the culture and let the culprit get away with some sympathy? If this match fixing case is found to be accurate (likely), Pakistani cricketers are as much to blame as the illegal bookkeepers. These players play in the international cricket and must be judged to the culture of the international cricketing environment as shaped by the laws and rules of ICC. This has been a big failure for ICC to let down the followers of cricket world over. The News of the World has discovered the tip of the iceberg. We do not know which other teams have also been involved in the recent past.

Rajit, you are the only racist i can see in this article and the comments by various readers. It dumbfounds me how, despite Watsons comments of support for Amir, you are complaining about words he used when he was trying to find a reason for a very talented youngster finding himself in a career ending situation. Take off your anti white glasses and reread the article. Four Aussies reported approaches from the same Indian man to their manager and the ICC. They did the right thing and you find fault in that as well. Unbelievable

I have no sympathy for anyone. Match fixing, bribery, Pitch conditions etc etc etc have been around now for sometime. Kick them out now. Youngsters or not. They need to serve their term outside cricket before they can come back. Bribery may be the norm in certain quarters to get things done especially at political level and in the civil administration. Cricket has to be clean and squeeky at that. What next?

Philip Gnana, Surrey

Posted by   on (August 31, 2010, 10:25 GMT)

Well, the least these Aus cricketers, who claim that they've been approached by the bookmakers, could've done was to report this to the officials as soon as they suspected foul play. It might have helped remove the rot a lot earlier. As cricket fan, more so a sub-continent cricket fan, it saddens me most that Asif and Amir have been caught up in these allegations. Of all the tournaments that was happening around the world, the matches Pak have been playing were by far the most interesting ones simply because of the way these two guys have been bowling. What worries me is that Amir might not have even thought of the repercussions of being involved in all this. May be the ICC should educate young cricketers about the off-field behaviors and help them hold their head in the right place. Most of the players from SL and Ind manage to keep themselves away from all these and somehow Pak, because of a few players and probably the management, get caught up.

Posted by   on (August 31, 2010, 9:36 GMT)

This match fixing and spot fixing has ruined Pakistan Cricket. These guys if found culprits, should be given harsh punishments and made an example for the new players to come.

wato is coming up now, what about warne,tim may,mark Waugh, Dean Jones, Darrell Hair who asked 500,000 an umpire whose information got leaked out Cricket aUSTRALIA stood behind him others got fined and then came back and played, warne was on drugs scandels,girls scandals, he got divorced his wife few times and still got back together but ppl forget, watson, is also another one, Being an Australian i love Australia and the nation but corruption exists everywhere and its not the society but few individuals who makes mess and they should be dealt with heavy arm of the law............kick them and kick them hard but pakistan nation love cricket and like India they treat Cricket as the only game and can't afford the scumbags in it

Aamer should probs get a a two year ban(if found guilty), people forget about about the background he comes from to him 50 thousand is a huge amount of money, he comes from a poor village lived his life in a poor community any chance for money is taken straight away. feel sorry for him, this thing occurs when players arnt getting enuf money so the pcb should realise this, and try to create a more sustainable contract for players to earn enuf money and not take to fixing, look at watson earns plenty of money so the offerings from bookies are small compared to their earnings so and he ignores them, also IPL shoud share some of the blame while players like kevin pieterson is earning 1 mil plus for his three year contract pakistan players are recieving nothing of the like, same with bangladesh if i was a fan i would be worried about bookies using their disadvantaged background for personal gain.

You fellas sure love to nitpick and complain, huh? Pakistan have a history of playing against the spirit of the game, that's obviously all Watto was referring to.