David Leggat: Farce in UAE not a sign of corruption

Pakistan's Salman Butt, who was present at the 'corrupt' cricket game in the UAE, attempts a catch on New Zealand's Daryl Tuffey. Photo / File

Here's one of the good things out of the claims of corruption in an unsanctioned T20 event in the United Arab Emirates - call it the travel advisory spinoff.

We now know where Ajman is.

It is the smallest of the seven emirates in the UAE, next door to Sharjah and 10km up the road from Dubai and now the de facto home for the Pakistan team, who haven't been allowed to play international cricket within its borders since 2009.

Yes, you can drink alcohol there, the beach is apparently pleasant, plenty of shops. Sounds a handy little spot for a holiday if you fancy sun and sand.

Then there's some cricket to watch and a hoot it is too, judging from the Ajman All Stars event recently.

To fully understand why the International Cricket Council is investigating, you need to check out the YouTube clip of the wickets falling in the match, particularly the inventive ways batsmen found to get run out.

But then you need to realise it was amateur hour, a junk event, unsanctioned by anyone. The onus is on ICC member countries to reprimand any of its players who took part in the match.

Sure the wickets are farcical; certainly it looks like they were gifted away. But then again, no need to sweat it as the start of the game going to rack and ruin on the evidence of this.

As a colleague suggested, it may relate more to the fact the players were cricket muppets rather than all consciously guilty of corrupt practice.

Bottom line? Who really cares. The only bit of interest in it came when it transpired no less a person of interest than former Pakistani captain Salman Butt was there.

Butt was one of three players suspended over spot fixing in England in 2010. Also there was Hasan Raza who remains the youngest official test player, at 14 years 227 days in 1996 when he played against Zimbabwe in Faisalabad.

Raza, who now lives in the UAE, said he played the first game of the tournament, before realising unusual happenings were taking place and walked away. He said young players told of being approached quite openly to drop catches or get out. Nothing surreptitious about this.

The ICC has said there's strong evidence of corruption, which you wouldn't think requires forensic frame by frame assessment, but as it was unsanctioned - neither the ICC nor the Emirates Cricket Board approved the tournament - there appears nothing to be done about it.

Strange days indeed, but in more important matters - not a word often related to the on-field world of T20 in this column - New Zealand can make an early declaration of their tri-series intent at the Sydney Cricket Ground tonight. Pakistan lowered the boom on New Zealand to win their series and take over the No1 ranking.

New Zealand play this form of the game well and it should be a cracker. New Zealand don't get to the SCG often. Call it a treat. They should take advantage of that.