Cricket: Fall from grace is all but complete

By RICHARD BOOCK

If a reality television show is ever produced about fallen sports stars (When Good Athletes turn Bad perhaps?), Pakistan fast-bowler Shoaib Akhtar will surely be one of the first profiled.

The freewheeling 27-year-old burst on to the scene in 1997 and delighted all but opposition batsmen with his licence to speed - sometimes clocked in excess of 160km/h.

Now, of course, he is in danger of being remembered for all the wrong reasons, a sobering example of how fortunes can shift when impressionable athletes are surrounded by dubious influences.

Akhtar, who has already copped an un-served suspension for throwing and a severe reprimand for ball tampering, this week became just the second cricketer to be banned for altering the condition of the ball.

He thus achieved the dubious distinction of being suspended for two entirely different offences, an effort that qualifies for automatic entry into cricket's Rogues' Gallery and promotes him as one of the most notorious players of his time.

Akhtar's naive action against New Zealand at Dambulla also opened up all the old controversies that have bedevilled the game over the years, particularly the issue of ball "maintenance," and who has profited from it in the past.

Ironically, the fuss came in the same week Shoaib's mentor, Wasim Akram, retired from the game with a somewhat dented reputation himself - having been previously embroiled in match-fixing and ball-tampering allegations.

It was, after all, Wasim and Imran Khan, one of the pioneers of "induced" reverse-swing, who were caught in the middle of a ball-tampering storm during the tour of England in 1992, leading to one of the most acrimonious series in history.

Eyebrows were raised after umpires Ken Palmer and John Hampshire ordered that the ball be changed during the interval of the Lord's one-day international, and emotions erupted soon after when the ICC refused to release either the ball or the umpires' report.

The standoff led to allegations between the players, the result of which saw Imran taking Ian Botham and Allan Lamb to the High Court and emerging with £400,000 ($1.12 million) in damages.

To England's mortification, the next major ball-tampering row involved their captain, Mike Atherton, who claimed in 1994 that he was rubbing dirt from his pocket on to the palm of his hand to absorb perspiration.

He denied the charge of ball tampering, but admitted wrong-doing in not being completely candid with the match referee, and was slapped with a £2000 fine.

Former Pakistan captain Waqar Younis became the first cricketer to be suspended for ball-tampering after being spotted in 2000 by New Zealand match referee John Reid at Colombo, and just a year later, mega-star Sachin Tendulkar was caught at Port Elizabeth, this time by match referee Mike Denness.

Tendulkar was handed a one-match suspended sentence and fined 75 per cent of his match fee, but Denness came under enormous pressure and was replaced for the third test by Denis Lindsay.

Yet, for all the angst over the declining standards, cricket cannot compare with major league baseball when it comes to cheating, the Americans having tried ruses such as recruiting dwarfs to minimise the strike zone, stealing call signs and corking bats.

In the 1950s and 60s former Yankees' pitcher Ford Whitney hurled a highly illegal "gunk ball," having unbalanced the missile with a mixture of baby oil, turpentine and resin.

Then there was former major league pitcher Don Sutton, who was often accused of scuffing or using the outlawed "spitball," until in 1978 he was ejected and suspended for 10 days.

Suspicious umpires often frisked Sutton on the mound. They once discovered a note inside his mitt with the message, "You're getting warm, but it's not here."

Browns' pitcher Nels Potter was the first baseballer to be suspended for throwing a spitball, in 1944; Mariners' pitcher Rick Honeycutt was suspended in 1980 after defacing a ball with a thumb-tack taped to his finger; and Twins' pitcher Joe Niekro was suspended in 1987 after umpires found him concealing an emery board and a piece of sandpaper.

The second-base umpire is reported to have said afterwards of Neikro that it was so obvious, it was "like a guy walking down the street during Prohibition, carrying a bottle of booze."

Many would say Akhtar's effort this week was equally as brazen, as if he somehow thought scratching the surface of the ball was perfectly legitimate behaviour.

Then again, with role models such as Imran, Wasim and Waqar Younis, who could blame him if he did.