Cricket and the lure of money — a sad tale with a long history

While massive money pouring into the sport has benefited professionals, it has also allowed greed to triumph over professionalism and purity of competition

LAHORE: From renowned Aussie media tycoon Kerry Packer’s May 1977 World Series Cricket to the February 2016 Pakistan Super League (PSL), money has just literally flooded the “Game of Gentlemen,” revolutionising the sport profoundly and changing its landscape entirely in a span of about 39 years.

But this unprecedented development has come at a great cost as the sport has been marred by a spate of financial and moral scandals, hence bringing the game into absolute disrepute at times.

Numerous cricketers have been banned from the game after they were found guilty of throwing games for money. Besides some Pakistani players, these cricketers include Muhammad Azharuddin, Ajay Sharma, Manoj Prabhakar, Ajay Jadeja and Sreesanth (India), Hansie Cronje, Herschelle Gibbs and a lesser known player Henry Williams (South Africa), Maurice Odumbe (Kenya), Marlon Samuels (West Indies) and Lou Vincent (New Zealand).

Muhammad Ashraful of Bangladesh was banned for eight years, Sri Lanka’s Kaushal Lokuarachchi was banned from cricket for 18 months by the Bangladesh Premier League Anti-Corruption Tribunal for failing to report an approach by a bookie and South Africa’s Gulam Bodi was banned for 20 years for attempting to fix matches.

Australian cricketers Mark Waugh and Shane Warne were also been fined heavily by the Australian Cricket Board for offering information about the weather and pitch information to a bookmaker.

One earnestly hopes that the PSL, still in its infancy, is not rocked by such scams and controversies that could shame the country in any way because spot fixing and betting have not just plagued the cricketing establishments all over the world during these last four decades under review, they have also shaken them to the core.

The PSL has sold five franchise rights for $93 million for a period of 10 years and has selected five icon players—Messrs Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Chris Gayle, Kevin Pietersen and Shane Watson—who would pocket about US $200,000, which is not a bad start by many means.

However, there is no doubt that Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer (1937-2005) had created and bankrolled one of the biggest storms to hit cricket when he had founded the World Series Cricket after the Australian Cricket Board had denied him the rights to cover Test matches and domestic cricket on his Channel Nine Network.

In 1977, Packer had offered what he thought was a lucrative Australian $1.5 million, which was equivalent to Australian $8.09 million in December 2015.

The “Packer Circus,” as the Australian media used to call it those days, had then organised 16 “Super Tests” that were played by “rebels” from Australia, West Indies and a World
XI between December 2, 1977 and April 6, 1979, besides holding 49 One Day matches during the same period.

BBC had viewed: “Packer had his TV rights, cricket was transformed into a professional game and the way was paved for players and administrators to pick up the riches they do today. Some participants paid the ultimate price in terms of international careers, and were never forgiven by their countries. But their sacrifice and Packer’s gambling instinct have made an indelible impact on the sport and left a lasting legacy.”

Although a lot is not known about Packer’s profits or the salaries of the cricketers contracted, however, West Indian legends Viv Richards, Andy Roberts and captain Clive Lloyd had quickly joined the Packer movement, accepting a total contract of Australian $90,000 each for three years at that time.

Packer was also not allowed to hold WSC matches on established cricket stadiums. So he leased four football stadiums, (in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Sydney).

The BBC had once stated: “A number of leading internationals had become disillusioned and Packer’s money provided a tempting antidote.”

The World Series Cricket rebellion had lasted only 17 months, ending with a compromise between Packer and the Australian Cricket Board authorities.

During Packer’s World Series Cricket, 56,126 runs were scored and 2,364 wickets had tumbled.

Then came the Indian Premier League (IPL), which is contested annually by franchise teams representing the country’s different cities.

Founded in 2008 by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), IPL’s brand value was estimated to be US$2.2 billion in 2014.

In 2008, although the total base price of all the IPL franchises was around $400 million, they were sold for $723.59 million.

On January 17, 2008 it was announced that a consortium consisting of India’s Sony Entertainment Television Network and Singapore-based World Sports Group had secured the global broadcasting rights of the Indian Premier League. The cost of the record 10-year deal was $1.026 billion.

As part of the deal, the consortium was required to pay the BCCI a sum of $918 million for the television broadcast rights and $108 million for the promotion of the tournament.

According to the BCCI, the 2015 IPL season had contributed Indian rupees 0.5 billion ($7.4 million) to the country’s GDP.

The 2015 season of the IPL offered a total prize money of Indian rupees 400 million ($5.9 million), with the winning team netting Indian rupees 150 million ($2.2 million).

The first and second runners up had received Indian rupees 100 million and 75 million respectively, with the fourth placed team also winning a purse of Rs75 million.

The IPL rules mandate that half of the prize money must be distributed among the players.

And today, numerous Indian and global cricketers are minting gold at the IPL.

A January 1, 2016 report of the ESPNcricinfo states: “Virat Kohli is the highest-paid cricketer in the IPL, according to salary figures released by the league. While Kohli will cost his franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore Rs125 million (approximately $1.89 million) from their salary purse, they will actually pay him Rs150 million ($2.26 million). MS Dhoni, for long believed to be the most expensive IPL cricketer, will be paid $1.89 million, which is equal to his purse deduction, by the Pune franchise.”

On world’s highest paid cricketers, the highly reputed American magazine “Forbes” had stated a few years ago that Mahendra Singh Dhoni was on the top with total earnings of $26.5 million per annum. He was followed by Sachin Tendulkar ($18.6 million), Gautam Gambhir ($7.3 million), Virat Kohli ($7.1 million), Virender Sehwag ($6.9 million), Shane Watson ($5.9 million), Michael Clarke ($4.9 million), Brett Lee ($4.8 million), Ricky Ponting ($4.1 million) and Yusuf Pathan ($3.7 million).

But despite all its business excellence and the financial successes, IPL’s credibility has been tainted by controversies.

In April 2010, the BCCI had suspended the IPL chairman, Lalit Modi, for alleged acts of individual misdemeanours.

Modi was officially barred from participating in the affairs of the Board, the IPL and any other committee of the BCCI.

In August 2011, the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said that the Income Tax Department was probing allegations of financial irregularities and “criminal activities” against some of the franchisees in the IPL.

In June 2011, the Chennai High Court said it “could not appreciate” the tax exemption to the Indian Premier League and had sought a response from Tamil Nadu government on the issue.

In May 2012, “Pune Warriors” cricketer Mohnish Mishra, who was suspended by the Indian cricket board pending inquiry, had accepted the statements he made during the sting operation conducted by a TV channel and said he did it casually “to develop his value.”

The NDTV had reported: “Pune Warriors also suspended Mishra with immediate effect after he and four others were suspended by the Board of Control for Cricket in India on charges of spot-fixing.”

In May 2013, three players of an IPL franchise “Rajasthan Royals” were arrested by Delhi Police on charges of spot fixing. The three players, including Test Cricketer Sreesanth, were suspended by BCCI until the inquiry in case was completed by the police.

In March 2013, Gurunath Meiyappan—a top official of the Chennai Super Kings franchise and son-in-law of BCCI president N Srinivasan—was arrested in Mumbai by the Crime Branch in connection with illegal betting.

Despite media and national outrage asking for his resignation, Srinivasan had remained defiant, but ultimately, he had opted to step aside in June 2013.

He was reinstated in September 2013 and in October 2013, the Supreme Court had allowed him to take charge as BCCI president.

In 2014, the Supreme Court of India had then directed BCCI chief Srinivasan to step down from his position on his own in order to ensure a fair investigation, else it would pass verdict asking him to step down.

On July 14, 2015, an Indian Supreme Court committee had suspended the owners of $67 million Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals franchises from the IPL for a period of two years for alleged involvement in betting.

The England and Wales Cricket Board had also planned to hold the English Premier League a few years ago in collaboration with a Texan billionaire Allen Stanford, who was the brains behind the two successful “Stanford 20/20” tournaments played in the West Indies.

It had plans to form and divide 21 teams in three groups of seven.

But as luck would have it, a fraud investigation against Stanford had surfaced in February 2009, forcing the England and Wales Cricket Board to withdraw from talks with the American tycoon on sponsorship issues.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board has also held a few editions of its league.

For the third edition of the Bangladesh Premier League, Chris Gayle was picked up by “Barisal Bulls” in October 2015 for the highest auction tag of $210,000.

But controversies have haunted this tournament too.

Allegations had surfaced about match fixing in the Bangladesh Premier League in 2013. It was alleged that a match between the Dhaka Gladiators and the Chittagong Kings was fixed.

In May 2013, the Bangladesh Cricket Board President, Nazmul Hassan, had stated that a Bangladeshi player was questioned by the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit. He had later confirmed the identity of the player as Muhammad Ashraful, the youngest centurion in Test Cricket.

Ashraful was allegedly paid about $12,800 to lose this particular match. He was also allegedly involved in fixing another match 10 days later.

Ashraful had confessed and was banned for eight years.

Another former Bangladesh spinner Shariful Haq was banned in September 2012 after an inquiry had found him guilty of spot-fixing during the first edition of the Bangladesh Premier League.

In March 2013, the BCB handed down a 10-year ban to umpire Nadir Shah after a sting operation by an Indian TV channel found him apparently willing to fix matches for cash.

Now, coming to the Australian Big Bash League, one finds that starting from the 2015-2016, Cricket Australia has increased the prize money for this tournament to $890,000 for the four finalists.

The Big Bash was established in 2011 by Cricket Australia.

According to the July 28, 2014 edition of the “Daily Mirror,” former England batsman Kevin Pietersen had become the highest-paid player in the Big Bash after signing a two-year deal with Melbourne Stars.

In 2014, media reports had surfaced that punters had splurged more than $600 million on this season’s T20 Big Bash in an international betting blitz that had put cricket’s anti-corruption police on their toes.

Punters on global betting giant “Betfair” alone had placed $573 million in bets on 22 Big Bash games.

A range of other corporate and online bookmakers in Australia and around the globe had taken more than $30 million in bets on Australia’s domestic T20 competition.

A Cricket Australia spokesman said anti-corruption measures had been centralised and there were the same strict security measures in place for Big Bash matches as there were for international games.

At least one anti-corruption officer was deputed at each game and Big Bash players were required to hand their mobile phones and communication devices in before play.

The Caribbean Premier League, established in 2013 by the West Indies Cricket Board, has also chosen some big international names.

Shahid Afridi was the most expensive of Pakistani stars sold at the inaugural auction for the new Caribbean Premier League 2015 as he had succeeded in fetching $150,000.

Other Pakistani players included Shoaib Malik at $100,000 by Barbados Tridents, Sohail Tanvir at $80,000 by St Kitts-Nevis and Kamran Akmal at $30,000 by Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel.

Marlon Samuels had fetched a price tag of $100,000 and Sheldon Cotterell was bought for $70,000.

Mahela Jayawardene, Lasith Malinga, Jacques Kallis and Ross Taylor were also among the formidable international names shortlisted for this league.