Betting on sporting events is a practice which is as old as time.
Although it questionable from ethical and moral point of view, it doesn’t affect much number of people than the person who bets his money on any given sporting event. But the case with match fixing is completely different. Bookies and betters sometimes ask some of the players playing a match to play the game in a ‘particular manner’ so that they can win their bets. The players in exchange receive huge amounts of money for their role in profiting the fixers and bookies.
This is especially painful for the fans who support their respective teams wholeheartedly. Moreover, match fixing cheats them as people and taints the entire sport in question.
Also, match fixing doesn’t imply that only players take money to perform as per the bookies’ instructions, sometimes referees and umpires are also asked to give biased decisions for the benefit of a particular team.
Also, match fixing is not limited to sports which are played physically like cricket, football or basketball, It has happened in esports as well, which is a currently rising phenomenon.
Cricket has had its fair share of ‘match fixers’ as well. The root cause of match fixing in cricket is betting. If we remove betting from the equation, it won’t be happening in the first place.
Some of the ‘famous’ international cricketers who have been involved in match fixing are: –
- Umar Akmal
- Shakib Al Hasan
- Sharjeel Khan
- Shariful Haque
- Salman Butt
- Mohammad Asif
- Mohammad Amir
- Ata-ur-Rehman
- Saleem Malik
And the list will go on and on. A point should be noted though. It is that that these are the ‘cricketers’ who have been ‘caught’ in the act. The actual scale of fixing matches in cricket is still unknown till date.