Injustice to Logie

It is unfortunate to have to be preoccupied with the dirty spectre of matchfixing in our sport when there are more positive aspects of cricket worthy of discussion. Yet, certain occasions necessitate that we speak out.

One such occurred earlier this month when details of India's Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) report on match-fixing were released.

For weeks before any of the document's substance was publicly known, worldwide media had been stating 'two West Indies cricketers were named' in it.

No one seemed to have enough information to indicate exactly what was said about the two men but it appears that 'subconsciously' people, especially in the media, assumed this meant the two West Indians mentioned were accused of matchfixing in some form or other.

Finally, it was revealed that the two of our players 'named' were Brian Lara, now on tour in Australia, and former batsman, Gus Logie.

Lara has strenuously denied the accusation by bookmaker Mukesh Kumar Gupta that he took money to under-perform and has passed the matter on to his lawyers. The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has accepted Lara's denial and offers him its fullest support at this time.

However, it is Logie's case that, in another sense, has proven more disturbing and is cause for some concern among players as we try to determine the nature and extent of match-fixing in cricket.

Anyone who had taken the time to read the contents of the CBI report will agree 'yes' Logie was 'named', but the question is how.

On the top of Page 3 of the report, Gupta 'who has accused a number of international cricketers of being involved in match-fixing 'stated: 'After dinner that night, (I) spoke to Gus Logie of the West Indies over (the) telephone. However, Gus Logie refused to cooperate in any manner.'

Could a man's innocence be any plainer than that?

However, despite access to the report through the Internet and other sources, some media entities failed to take the time to investigate in what context Logie's name was called and rushed ahead with stories that the former West Indies vice-captain had been 'implicated' in the match-fixing scandal.

The stories were repeated a number of times in Logie's homeland, Trinidad and Tobago.

Logie, who was at the time attending the WICB's two-day Cricket Development Strategy meeting in Antigua, was visibly upset and justifiably so.

Here, in one fell swoop, his impeccable reputation was being torn to shreds by some careless and sensationally inaccurate journalism 'all because a few persons did not take the time to ascertain the facts.

Furthermore, his family back at home was being besieged with calls pertaining to this misinformation.

Suddenly, a man who is continuing to give yeoman's service to cricket as West Indies Youth coach 'and who masterminded our regional Under-15 team's victory in the Costcutter World Challenge in England in the summer 'found himself having to defend himself against a lie.

This, more than anything else, is perhaps the most unsettling aspect of the whole match-fixing saga: the innocent may wrongly get thrown in with the guilty.

While it seems everyone has now realised the error made with Logie, how do you repair the damage done to him and possibly others who find themselves unfairly accused?

This is as bad as the guilty going free, and all of us in the international cricketing fraternity must be extremely careful that, in our zeal to rid cricket of cheats, we do not sometimes do more harm than good.

Match-fixing must be rooted out but the honour of the good men in cricket is equally important.

It will be quite a while before many of the pieces of this ugly puzzle fall into place and we urge the media 'and others in influential positions 'to exercise the utmost caution in handling related matters.

Being the gentleman he is, we are sure Gus Logie would not want others to suffer as he did in recent weeks.