Flag planted in moral high ground is clear message to cheats and chancers

THE custodial sentences handed out to Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir for their parts in a match-fixing scam will not stop corruption in sport.

They might make others think twice, however, before they line their own pockets with actions which destroy the integrity of the sports they profess to love.

If so then Mr Justice Cooke, who jailed former Pakistan captain Butt for 30 months, fast bowler Asif for 12 months and sent teenage paceman Amir to a young offenders’ institution for six months at Southwark Crown Court for their parts in the plot to bowl deliberate no-balls, has done the world of sport a huge service.

Ask yourself the following questions: Have you ever watched a 100 metres race at a major athletics championship and wondered whether the winner might have gained that extra yard from the illegal contents of a bottle?

Have you ever watched a horse race and been suspicious why one of the favourites was so behind the pace?

Have you ever watched snooker with a hint of doubt or cycling with a sense of cynicism or a football match with a feeling that all might not be what it seemed?

The chances are the answer is yes to all of the above and that is what the spot-fixers, the drug cheats and the no-ball plotters have done to sport.

They have reduced it to an activity where no one can believe unconditionally what they are seeing. Is it hard-earned fact or is it the fantasy of a corrupt ring of criminals manipulating sporting action to deliver millions for themselves?

It would be naive, however, to believe the sentencing of three Pakistan cricketers and the 32 months handed to UK-based sports agent Mazhar Majeed is the end of the story.

We only have to remember Hansie Cronje, the South Africa captain who was banned for life for his part in a match-fixing scandal in 2000, to recognise that cricket is perfectly tailored for corruption and especially so for captains with almost total control over the ebb and flow of a match.

As such, they will always be targets for the unscrupulous and that includes criminal rings with intimidating ways of making key figures see their point of view.

We only have to remember, too, the British betting scandal of 1964 in which eight professional footballers, including Sheffield Wednesday’s Peter Swan and Tony Kay, were jailed and banned for life for match-fixing, to see that sport does not learn from history nor necessarily from strict punishments. Money and endless temptation are at the root of the problem and cricket’s increasing potential for scams is obvious with the development of the billionaires’ playground which is the Indian Premier League and the burgeoning of Twenty20 cricket on a global scale.

There is some sympathy for Amir, who must have been under substantial pressure and whose career at 18 promised great things when the offence occurred.

For the others, we can have only contempt for their besmirching of the image of cricket, whose history once was synonymous with fair play.

In all likelihood, the events at Southwark Crown Court, however, are a grain of sand on a beach of betrayal where sport in general is concerned but, in shaming the quartet as men who had let down “the many youngsters who regarded you as heroes”, the judge planted a flag on cricket’s moral high ground.

One which denoted zero tolerance and harsh retribution. The cheats and chancers should take note.