It's just not cricket!

As the title says, the situation involving the England & Pakistan cricket teams has cast a long shadow over all forms of cricket - especially the international game.

It started with a "sting" by the News of the World, allegedly showing some members of the Pakistan national team taking substantial amounts of money to bowl no-balls at certain points in specific matches against England.

Not unreasonably the people of Pakistan are not happy, as the national team players are well regarded in the country, and for some of them to be suspected of agreeing to perform at less than their full potential is horrifying.

The spectre of the Hansie Cronje scandal that broke back in 2000, is still hanging over the sport, but there have been big strides in the attempt to clean the game up, but allegations like this, just drag cricket back into the mire from which it has tried so hard to escape.

Now the president of the Pakistan cricket board has allegedly spoken on Indian television, claiming that there were England players who had also taken large sums of money to throw the last match that the two countries played.

Talk about repaying the ECB… And this has been done after the ECB encouraged the Pakistan cricket board to play their tests against Australia here in the UK, after no other country would host the test series.

To be honest, this smacks of someone trying to divert the attention away from his own issues, and dragging the England team into the mire as well, and it is not doing the sport that he claims to love any favours at all, and for a time, threw the fate of the Lords one day international in doubt.

Time to call this quits - it's nearly the end of my lunchbreak.

Back later if I get the chance.

Karen

Now some things you hold on to - and some you just let go
Seems like the ones that you can't have
Are the ones that you want most