There is more than just corruption

Thank you, South African cricket. Cricket has dominated the news headlines for the wrong reasons in the past few weeks and the Pakistan cricket chief Ijaz Butt played a pivotal role in keeping it on the front pages by accusing England of corruption during the past weekend.

But the enthusiastic support by the South African public for the Airtel Champions League tournament and the performance by the Eastern Cape-based franchise, the Chevrolet Warriors, as well as the Australian teams, has diverted attention away from corruption and international in-fighting in the beloved game.

Butt accused England players of match-fixing in the third one-day international between England and Pakistan at the Oval last week. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, who later tried to soften his initial remarks, said, in an interview with the Indian NDTV news channel on Sunday: "There is loud and clear talk in bookie circles that some English players were paid enormous amounts of money to lose the (Oval) match."

Butt and other Pakistani officials had been angered by the International Cricket Council (ICC) decision to investigate Pakistan's innings at the Oval after receiving information from a British newspaper about an allegedly suspicious scoring pattern.

In a strongly worded statement, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) rejected Butt’s allegation of match-fixing in the third match on Friday which Pakistan won by 23 runs. (Source: SuperSport)

A joint statement from the ECB and the England team confirmed the tour of England and Wales would continue with Monday's match and the final one-day international in Southampton on Wednesday.

But it called Butt's reported comments "wholly irresponsible and completely without foundation. Both the ECB and Team England view the comments made by Mr Butt as defamatory and not based in fact."

Signs of the tension between the two teams came when Sky Sports reported an altercation involving England's Jonathan Trott and Pakistan's Wahab Riaz in the nets at Lord's on Monday, an incident witnessed by match referee Jeff Crowe.

Butt's comments came after fresh corruption claims against Pakistan emerged on Saturday, with Britain's Sun tabloid claiming to have been made aware of details of Pakistan's innings before Friday's match had got under way. (Source: SuperSport)

However, the overall result was not believed to have been fixed.

Safe for SA to tour?

Some observers have asked whether it would be wise for South Africa to undertake a tour of Abu Dhabi to take on Pakistan in a series of five one-day internationals and three tests, claiming it could be unsafe.

However, a number of factors are at stake here. South Africa could be fined 10 million dollars if they don’t agree to a tour simply because of misgivings about the status of the matches before the investigation into the conduct of individual Pakistani players has been concluded.

Remember, the full Pakistan team has not been banned.

Secondly, and related to the previous: no member country is allowed to boycott another country simply because of the alleged involvement in corruption by some individuals.

Furthermore, South Africa’s involvement in the five one-day internationals would be deemed critical in their build-up to the Cricket World Cup on the subcontinent starting on  24 February 2011.

By the way, the SA team for the one-day internationals against Zimbabwe in October and against Pakistan in October and November would be finalised within the next week.

This team would most definitely form the core of the Cricket World Cup team, as it is unlikely that the selectors would tamper much with the team picked for the  series against Zim and Pakistan.

Twelve players would go toe to toe for the five remaining ‘vacancies’ in the World Cup team. There is some uncertainty over the middle-order, the additional opening batsman and the second spinner. Roelof van der Merwe, Paul Harris and Robin Peterson would battle it out for the position of second spinner.

Albie Morkel, Justin Kemp and Ryan McLaren are involved in their own private tussle for the position of second all-rounder and number-six batsman.

And three from Loots Bosman, Mark Boucher, David Miller, Alviro Petersen, Herschelle Gibbs and JP Duminy would be selected as number-five batsman and additional opener.

The other 10 positions in the group of 15 are more or less secured. They would most probably be filled by Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Johan Botha, Wayne Parnell, Dale Steyn, Morné Morkel, Charl Langeveld and Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

Ultimately, the Airtel Champions League is not only about winning a trophy worth more than R17,5 million to the winning team. It is also shaping up as a trial game for some of South Africa’s finest players in their bid to gain entry into the Cricket World Cup team.

Sure, this is a different format to the 50-over Cricket World Cup, but excellent performances by Morkel, Kemp, Duminy, Petersen and Boucher would make it difficult for the selectors to dismiss their claims.

Lastly, there is an Indian Premier League auction looming. And if the SA players currently on stage perform to expectations, they will spend three years playing Indian Premier League cricket and earn a cool million or 10 … the right way and without a shadow of corruption hanging over it.