Cricket no-balled

From the heights of a magnificent unpredictability acquired through the seesawing fortunes and switchback reversals that so often make it the most enthralling of sports - one, moreover, in its duration and sensibilities seemingly isolated from the instant gratification of lesser contests - test cricket has seemingly been brought to its knees by the most mundane and base of motives: greed.

The evidence is yet to be heard before a judicial or quasi-judicial body, so some leeway ought to be given to the accused in preparation of their defence, but the charges brought by the UK's News of the World newspaper against members of the Pakistani team are little short of compelling.

Those are allegations of player involvement in a betting scam by which the outcome of their past matches, and those yet to be played, find themselves clouded by the spectre of corruption.

More specifically, in a "sting" operation, the News of the World, gained the confidence of businessman and cricket agent Mazhar Majeed, paying him 150,000 ($NZ311,000) in return for details of three pre-ordained "no-balls" in the fourth test between England and Pakistan at Lord's in London.

The three no-balls were duly delivered at the precise phases of play directed, an outcome surely beyond even the faintest realms of chance.

Pakistan cricket captain Salman Butt, the two strike bowlers involved, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, and wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, were questioned by British detectives on Sunday.

Mr Majeed was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud bookmakers and subsequently bailed without charge.

Moreover, the UK Sunday tabloid reported, Mr Majeed boasted to undercover reporters he had rigged the test match between Australia and Pakistan in Sydney in January, in which Australia - in a seemingly hopeless position - came through to win.

"Let me tell you the last test we did. It was the second test against Australia in Sydney ... that one we made 1.3 [million] ... ," Mr Majeed is reported to have said.

Nor does it help the case for the defence that these are not the only two instances for which Pakistani cricket has come under scrutiny.

In the mid-1990s, Australian players Mark Waugh and Shane Warne accused the then Pakistan captain, Salim Malik, of offering them bribes to perform poorly.

Four years ago, the team was accused of ball-tampering on a tour of England.

They are not cricket's only culprits: former South African captain Hansie Cronje was found guilty in 2000 of fixing matches.

And on a broader moral plane, a deeper historical trajectory, the sport - this noble activity in which the very notion of "sportsmanship" and "fair play" is so often held to reside - has successfully cultivated an image sometimes at odds with the evidence.

Witness the spineless capitulation of the English establishment to apartheid South Africa in the 1960s with the D'Oliveira affair; or the cash to leading county players for taking later teams to the Republic; or closer to home, the infamous "underarm" incident, joked about now, but hardly within the "spirit of the game".

At a micro-level, there has also evolved an unpleasantness in the "sledging" indulged in by opposing teams - including ugly examples of racist rhetoric - and the disappearance of the unspoken code by which players would "walk" if they knew they were out, and fielding captains would "call players back" if, for instance, a catch was not properly taken.

Much of this can be laid at the door of professionalism and big money: cricket has found itself to be as vulnerable to its seductions as many other sports.

On this occasion, the no-balling will not have affected in the slightest the outcome of the match, handsomely won by England, but nonetheless, if proven, is a deadly assault on the integrity of top-level cricket.

You cannot be a little bit corrupt.

The Lord's incident is a tragedy for the individuals concerned, in particular the precociously talented Amir - whose spell of fast swing and seam bowling at Lord's, in which in one short deadly spell he took four wickets for no runs was extraordinary.

But it is even more so for cricket at large.

It is a sport suffused with subtleties and has an extensive and equally arcane set of rules.

Cheating is not among them.

The long shadows of the latest allegations threaten permanently to tarnish its reputation and its future.

Should the charges against the Pakistani players prove true, those involved should be barred from the game.

And the message should be broadcast loudly once and for all: cricket is not for sale.