It's unusual for a news bulletin to elicit guffaws from a carful of blokes. But, while driving to an Old Thumpers pre-season footy practice with a couple of mates in April 2000, a voice on the radio claimed that Delhi police had a recording of an alleged conversation between South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje and a representative of an Indian betting syndicate during the March one-day series.
How we laughed ... Imagine Cronje, arguably cricket's most upstanding character, involved in a rort like that. Those Indian cops are hard case. Sure, there had been a few players pinged before Cronje - and that Sharjah tournament had always been a bit dodgy - but really, spot-fixing in cricket?
More than 13 years later, that blissful ignorance (perhaps it was supercilious arrogance) regarding illegal betting on matches is completely shattered. No-one, including the International Cricket Council, knows where to turn with the Champions Trophy under way and an overflow of spot-fixing controversy washing down from the Indian Premier League.
Cricket is so rife with permutations and packed with fixtures that scenarios like getting a wicketkeeper to take the bails off a certain number of times in an innings, a bowler overstepping a couple of extra times or a batsman playing out a maiden pass without query. One-day internationals and T20 matches are easy pickings. It is almost impossible to police them unless Big Brother zaps all forms of player freedom.
The ICC use education programmes to inform players of illegal gambling's perils but sometimes these merely unearth a world of possibility to those of dubious moral persuasion. Bulky brown paper bags are universal currency.
