Don't bet against it

The match-fixing scandal at the turn of the decade led to the downfall of Hansie Cronje and Mohammad Azharuddin, among others, and brought home to officials and the public just how big the issue was. Over the past few years it has almost disappeared from the agenda - but hasn't gone away, Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald. The game, especially the Twenty20 format, is once again in danger of being overrun by bookies and match-fixing, he says.

But 20-over cricket has lured them from their hideaways. Conversations with Indian Cricket League players confirm that the bookmakers are running amok in the rebel league, and it'd be the height of folly to assume that the Indian Premier League has remained intact. These players talk about strange events in matches, and one thinks he played in a match both sides were trying to lose. Others speak about batsmen suddenly playing out a maiden or padding up to a spinner, an odd technique to use in a 20-over contest.