AS Tiger Woods, Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif found out, cheating is not tolerated in sports. If I had a penny for every time a professional sports player was caught, or was accused of cheating, then I’d be a very wealthy man. The question arises after all these scandals though; does the illegal use of performance enhancing supplements justify the resignation of these athletes?
I think not!

We all make mistakes in life like forgetting people’s names, taking bribes to perform better (or in the case of the Pakistani bowlers to perform worse) or even to cheat on our spouses but at the end of the day what should be judged is the level of damage these mistakes have on sport.

While some bodies like the Major League Baseball (MLB) in the USA are more tolerant towards those who use performance enhancing drugs, other bodies such as the International Cricket Council do not understand factors that put the name of their sport in disrepute such as match-fixing.

Match-fixing will always be a factor in sport as long as money is involved. The question that should be asked is whether the players should actually be held accountable for being lured into match-fixing deals. Should there not be an independent body developed solely for dealing with such factors. My stance on this issue is based on the fact that some players are paid so little that I would not blame them if they chose to try their luck in the match-fixing game. I should not be misunderstood though, I am by no means condoning match-fixing, I don’t have enough bad words to describe the effect it has on sports in general, but I can understand people who put everything into their performances but get paid peanuts.

In the case of the Pakistani players Amir, Asif and Butt I think they were either bored that the Indian Premier League ended, which meant that they could no longer place bets.

I remember during the 2008 African Cup of Nations in Ghana when some Namibian players were allegedly approached by gentlemen offering them money so that they threw games away, and how they turned them down.
Doesn’t the fact that the players were approached by people interested in match-fixing warrant an investigation? Did it take place? And if so, what were the results of such investigations? These things will continue happening until they decide to crack down on them. It’s a bit like the drug cartels in Mexico. When people play down something like that for so long it reaches a point where it cannot be controlled and where those who are supposed to be fighting against it become the lynchpins of such acts.

Floyd Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after he tested positive for something he was not supposed to be using. Marian Jones lost medals she had won at the Olympic games after admitting to having used performance enhancing steroids. I fear that should the Pakistani cricketers be found guilty of match-fixing, they will also face some sort of harsh punishment like serving a ban for a certain length period from the sport. This will not stop other athletes from doing the same, but that’s all they can do because they have failed to put measures in place to deal with such things on a long-term basis.

Unfortunately, scandal is to the Pakistan Cricket team what honey is to bees so don’t be surprised if something of this nature occurs again. From the murder of their then Australian coach Bob Woolmer, to the ball-tempering allegations and now to the match-fixing allegations, let’s keep our eye on them and see what they get up to next.