After Cronje-gate you might expect cricket to try and put some distance between the sport and gambling but it seems the two have been entwined for centuries.

“The Victorian Bushrangers cricket team and the Victorian Cricket Association have their websites provided by Sportal. The home page for sportal.com.au, which used to always carry a cricket story on the front page, currently carries a banner ad and direct link to adultshop.com.

I’m not sure how this sits with the image makers at Cricket’s Big House but I am sure that they are not appreciative of Little Tommy being able to buy his new dong online before reading about Flemo and Funky getting the axe by Hookesy.

Meanwhile, cricket fans who check out live scores on the Baggy Green website, such as this link to the 5th West Indies-India test are greeted with an advertisement linking to “BET365”, a UK betting site.

Cric Info have obviously sold advertising/access space to BET 365. I wonder if they have sought the approval of the various Cricket Boards and Authorities whose teams are appearing on their live score service? One would think that after CronjeGate this type of advertising would not be linked directly to matches.

Perhaps Crikey subscribers who don’t think this is particularly savoury might like to bring it to the attention of the CEO of the Australian Cricket Board, the very boyish James Sutherland who can be reached at james_sutherland@acb.com.au.

Regards, Cricket Nut”

The history of cricket and betting

By Sceptical Simon

Crikey Cricket Critic

Cricket and gambling go back a long way. Recently attention was drawn to Crikey’s readers the fact that gambling companies are the principle sponsers of www.cricinfo.com, the main cricket website on the net, which has formal link to the game’s governing bodies. Conflict of interest, I hear you cry? Well, maybe. Sometimes conflicts of interest become so longstanding that by a process of osmosis, they become part of the established order. Journalism and politics is an example that springs to mind. So it is with cricket and betting, in fact it is a link that is just as longstanding.

In the 18th century, as it is today, cricket was a prime gambling medium. Match fixing was rife. One deal went wrong in 1774, and in the ensuing fight, one player was killed and two others severely injured. Cricket betting was seen as a legitimate occupation for members of the upper classes, one Anglican worthy enhanced his income by 600 pounds a year, a considerable sum in Regency England.

The MCC was established in 1787. Gradually it became the pre-eminent club in England, and it’s clout was enhanced by successfully warning off the match fixer William Lambert from Lord’s in 1817, and banning bookmakers from the ground. The MCC and the Jockey Club were similar institutions, with similar sorts of people running them, and became experienced as sports administrators. So the MCC was able to win the battle against open match fixing in English cricket.

The problem went to sleep. Gradually cricket as we know it developed. First Class cricket started in Australia in the 1850s, Test cricket started in 1877, and throughout the old Empire, cricket became an instituion. In Asian countries, cricket became an game with a Old Worlde ethos, and the notion of the Elite, Gentleman’s game became strongly entrenched.

Betting on cricket as a harmless spectator wheeze took off again in England, without corrupting the players, although you never know what might have happened in smokefilled rooms. Firms like Ladbroke’s set up their tent on Test grounds on England, and players occasionally had a flutter. Visiting teams got the notion as well. Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee famously won a stack of cash in 1981, but no one suggested that they threw the game.

The view was that two fiercely patriotic Australians wouldn’t dream of throwing an Ashes Test. Cricket’s gambling problem emerged when international cricket became less important to the players. The problem is that the international calender is saturated with cricket. Keith Miller played from 1946 to 1956, and in those ten years, he played 55 Tests. Shane Warne has been a fixture in the Australian team for ten years also, yet in the recent Cape Town Test against South Africa, he played his 100th Test, and Warne has missed several series through injury. In addition, Warne has played 178 One day internationals.

The explosion in the fixtures list came in two phases. The first phase was in the aftermath of the Kerry Packer revolution in the 1970s. To provide content for Kerry Packer’s Nine Network, the ACB established a ODI cricket tournament, played throughout the summer, and often under lights. The Australian season became the busiest in the world, and the most lucrative. The then world champions, West Indies were frequent visitors, because they made the most money in Australia, and in turn generated more ticket sales and higher ratings.

The second explosion in fixtures came when other cricket boards finally noticed that the Australian formula was a recipe for riches. So all of a sudden there was more cricket then you could shake a stump at. India found it’s burgeoning middle classes had an insatiable appetite for cricket, and its new satellite TV companies were willing to pay enormous sums for the right broadcast these games. The peak of the craze saw India play Pakistan in that hotbed of cricket, Toronto, with each game earning the Boards $US 1 million dollars a game.

Betting on cricket has always been illegal on the Indian subcontinent, but has always taken place regardless. When cricketers noticed that precious little of these riches were heading their way, it’s no wonder that some of them fell prey to betters. The arrogance of the controlling boards made matters worse. After a tough tour of India, the South Africans were stunned to learned that a benifit game for the Indian cricketer Armanarth was to be made a full fledged ODI. They weren’t happy, and were prey to betters offering $US250,000 to throw the game. The team discussed the offer, but declined.

The mechanics of cricket mean that if you are going to corrupt a player, the best player to ensnare is the captain, as his decision making can radically affect the outcomes of matches. Three captains were definately ensnared, and doubts remain about others.

Three enquiries eventually were held into cricket betting and match fixing. The report by Pakistan was conducted by a judicial figure, Mohommad Quayyum. So was South Africa’s, headed by Ernest King. India let its enquiry be done by the police. The findings are well known. The lessons appear to have been learned too, and the fixture list in international cricket is actually less then what it was in the heyday of match fixing in the 1990’s. But betting on cricket remains.

This leads back to Cricinfo. Why does Cricinfo accept advertising from betting companies? Because it has to. The Cricinfo story is a classic dot.com story, of ambition, and the lesson of Icarus which came thereafter. Cricinfo needs the betting advertising to keep afloat, and the betting companies need Cricinfo because that’s where every serious cricket fan that has a computer ends up- No site can match Cricinfo’s speed or statistical services. It’s what is known as a symbiotic system. Just like journalism and politics.

Scott Wickstein can be contacted at simon_templar44@yahoo.com