Cricket: Latest Pakistan scandal likely to hit NZ gates

NZ Cricket CEO Justin Vaughan. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand Cricket boss Justin Vaughan believes the current corruption scandal swirling around Pakistan could disrupt gate takings here this summer.

Pakistan are due to tour New Zealand to play three Twenty20 matches, six one day internationals and two tests between December and February 2011.

Vaughan has his doubts that the second test against Pakistan in Wellington last year featured any corrupt practices like "spot fixing". However, he has no doubt the episode highlighted in the England-Pakistan series has already hurt cricket - here and globally.

He says NZC is keeping its options open re the summer tour by Pakistan, although he admits any replacement or additional tour would be "expensive".

"The sad thing is that these events will mean that any error made in cricket will be focused on and be open to question now. That is not a good thing for the game. People do drop catches in tests and other matches but now everything will be seen in a new light.

"The thing is that Pakistan are not a good fielding side, it is almost part of their tradition, if you like. They have never been the best fielding unit around.

"Also, I can understand people looking at the Sydney test [the match where Australia won against Pakistan from an almost impossible position] because they dropped a lot of catches there too - but Pakistan lost that one.

"So it's possible to draw an inference between the dropped catches and the result there. In Wellington, however, they won the match and I struggle to draw such a line between those dropped catches and the result here. It's very sad and I guess we may never know the answer - it's just imponderable."

One possible answer to that is the fact revealed during the series in England - that punters can bet on incidents, patterns and trends that happen during set periods of a match. All sorts of scenarios are possible in cricket's intricate sets of rules and statistics.

However, Vaughan says that, on a wider front, cricket has a real problem to confront.

"The thing is, perception is reality and many people now perceive the game to have problems this way. That must have an effect and it's a very tough one to remedy - people will still drop catches, for example."

It is now a moot point just how weak the Pakistan side would be if action is taken against players found to be involved after the investigation being carried out by the ICC.

"I am not sure what will happen; whether a definitive resolution will come out of the current investigation and whether that will put everyone at their ease regarding this problem.

"However, at the moment, Pakistan still have an obligation to tour here and that's how we are approaching it at present."

Vaughan says the controversy will almost certainly affect gate takings: "We will have to address that, I think, and it may very well be that we will have to promote the series here as the final act for the Black Caps before they head to the World Cup, rather than promoting the merits of the Pakistan side."

Vaughan also dismissed the idea the Pakistani cricketers were paid less than other international cricketers and that the betting, if proven, was some kind of 'catch-up' scheme.

"I can state that the Pakistan Cricket Board would gross more than New Zealand Cricket," he says. "I think it [the betting] is perhaps more to do with the betting culture that exists around Asia. "Having said that, certainly the Pakistan players haven't had an easy life with things like the lucrative IPL, where they have not been able to take part.

"So they are probably resentful at having missed out financially there, but for anyone to use that as an excuse for that sort of thing, well, that's just not right."