corruption – Bulletproof Truth

Palermo ponders: to pay or not to pay the mafia?

“People who are against the mafia are no longer afraid to step forward.” – Linda Vetrano, anti-mafia activist

Telford Vice / Catania, Sicily

MARLON Brando and Al Pacino don’t live here. But Sicily makes us an offer we can’t refuse: to come and see for ourselves that the achingly beautiful, elegantly crumbling, rough-edged, warm-hearted island is not a mafia movie set.

Even so, it doesn’t help that the climax of The Godfather III — when Mary, Michael Corleone’s daughter, is killed by a bullet meant for her father — was shot on the steps of Teatro Massimo, the opera house that dominates Piazza Verdi and is the pride of Palermo.

It also doesn’t help that the tourists and Palermitani who tread these ancient streets are assailed by tat featuring Don Vito Corleone, as portrayed by Brando, for sale on everything from aprons to playing cards to beermats.

Let the buyers of this stuff beware. They are paying to own the likeness of a fictional mob boss, but some of the money they spend is probably funnelled to the mafia. The real mafia.

South Africans who think their country has a monopoly on corruption can think again. The sophistication and scale of Cosa Nostra — “Our Thing” — reduces the Guptas to petty pickpockets.

Like South Africa’s first family of financial felony, the mafia’s reach goes all the way to the top. But also all the way to the bottom: most Sicilian businesses pay pizzo, or protection money. Umberto Santino, in his book “Mafia and Anti-mafia, yesterday and today”, describes the practice as “parallel taxation”.

Pizzo could come from pizzu, the Sicilian for beak. As in a bird dipping into many small sources of nourishment. Or it could be derived from the term used to describe the beaker of wheat an overseer was entitled to claim from the peasants who had threshed it. Often the overseer was a smalltime mafiosi.

So your purchase of Godfather-branded goods from a Palermo street seller has a better than even chance of helping to finance the mafia. But while Cosa Nostra still hides in plain sight, it’s not as strong as it used to be. And for that local businesses deserve a large share of the credit.

Around 80% of companies in Sicily used to pay pizzo — either in money or favours, like giving jobs to Cosa Nostra types or using mob-approved suppliers. But the Addiopizzo campaign, which started in 2004, has helped whittle that down to 60%.

Addiopizzo began when a group of friends who wanted to open a bar in Palermo knew they would run into the pizzo problem. So, late on the night of June 28, 2004, they distributed leaflets throughout the city that were designed to look like obituaries. They read: “An entire people that pays protection money is a people without dignity.” More than 1,000 businesses have since pledged to refuse to pay pizzo.

Linda Vetrano, an activist who works in Addiopizzo’s travel section by running anti-mafia tours in Palermo, enjoys pointing out three businesses on Via Vittorio Emanuele, where tourists can marvel at the 12th-century cathedral, enjoy a cannoli and avoid being run over by someone on an electric scooter all in the same few steps.

The owner of a souvenir shop knew the Addiopizzo organisers and naturally felt drawn to the campaign. A bar a few doors down was told to put slot machines on the premises, or else. The owners reported the approach to the police. Addiopizzo didn’t exist when the men from the mob came calling, but the bar became one of the first signatories. Across the street is an outlet of a gelato chain, which signed up before opening its first set of doors. None of their branches have been threatened by the mafia.

Was the tide turning against Cosa Nostra? “No,” Vetrano told the FM. “It’s a very good sign, but it just means that people who are against the mafia are no longer afraid to step forward. There are, sadly, still shopkeepers who either are too afraid or don’t want to be bothered by the mafia. There is an idea that if they pay protection the mafiosi will be on their side. We can call this a mafia mentality, which is the biggest obstacle to be defeated. That will take a long time.”

That’s because Cosa Nostra “live inside our society. They evolve as our society evolves. They adapt. They are not good people, but they are successful because they have managed to integrate.”

South Africans could say something similar about their country’s own corruption corporation. The crooks live among us. And they engineer the opportunity they could, as they have done before, pull the levers of the highest power.

The Guptas are not Marlon Brando or Al Pacino, and they don’t live in Sicily. Neither does the Don of Nkandla, and they’re unlikely to collide with justice on the stairs of an opera house. The best we can hope for is that the Dubai connection holds firm, and makes them an offer they can’t refuse.

First published by the Financial Mail.

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Zondo’s story has many chapters

“I’m always nervous, whether I’m playing a club game or my son is throwing balls at me.” – Khaya Zondo

Telford Vice / London

HYDE Park looked like an African savannah on Thursday. Not that lions or lionesses, or indeed cricketers or footballers of any kind, roamed the vast undulations of London’s usually green and pleasant heart. It was too hot for that. Aside from the baroque splendour of its trees, the parched park was a patchwork swathe of beige.

The UK’s most intense summer since 1976 will do that to even the most lush spaces. Like Lord’s, less than three kilometres to the north, where the Test series between England and South Africa starts on Wednesday. What has the heat done to pitches at cricket’s grandest ground?

Not the obvious and helped the spinners, it seems. They have claimed only 18 of the 186 wickets to fall there in first-class matches this season. That includes the Test against New Zealand in the first week of June, when Lancashire leg spinner Matt Parkinson had to come haring down the highway to make his debut as a concussion substitute for Jack Leach.

Parkinson had Tim Southee caught at slip in New Zealand’s second innings — the only wicket of the 35 that fell in the match that belonged to a slow bowler. No spin was bowled in either team’s first innings, and only 18.3 overs in the 170.2 overs bowled in the second innings. In the most recent first-class match at Lord’s, between Middlesex and Sussex three weeks ago, spin accounted for three of the 29 wickets and 54 of the 365.1 overs. If mad dogs and Englishmen really do go out in 2022’s midday sun, not many of them are spinners.

According to Southern Water, this region of England had less than two-thirds of its average rainfall for the first six months of 2022 and only four millimetres in July — when the long-term average is 50.3 millimetres. Temperatures have hovered around 30 degrees Celsius for weeks, and the rain that has been forecast for next week will come — if it comes — as a relief to everyone except cricket aficionados who have turned their attention to Lord’s.

Doubtless Khaya Zondo isn’t thinking about any of the above. For one thing, he’s not in London. For another, he can’t do anything about the weather. For still another, he is focused on staying in the selection frame for the first Test. He did that on Tuesday and Wednesday by batting for more than three hours for his 86 in a tour match against England Lions in Canterbury. It was the South Africans’ biggest innings in terms of runs and deliveries. Importantly, Zondo showed a level of patience that earned 130 dot balls from the 166 he faced. He was undone on the second morning without adding to his overnight score, when he left an inswinger from Sam Cook and had his off stump rattled.

“I’ve accepted my limitations,” Zondo said in an audio file released by CSA after the close on Tuesday. “I’ve also accepted where I am good and I’ve just kept working, trying to get better with each ball I face, just keep adding building blocks on top of each other.”

The first of those blocks was laid during practice — “I went into the nets and worked on my balance, worked on playing the ball late” — to help him adjust to the conditions: “It’s definitely different to South Africa. The ball nips a lot more, and you never really feel like you’re in; you’ve got to make sure you’re always awake. As soon as you think you’re comfortable, that’s when the ball does something you don’t expect it to do and that’s when it catches you off guard.”

After 213 first-class innings, he was not immune to anxiety: “I’m always nervous, whether I’m playing a club game or whether my son is throwing balls at me. So I’m always nervous when I pick up a bat. That’s good nerves.”

Zondo scored two half-centuries and a century in nine innings for Darwen in the 2015 editions of the Northern Premier League and the Lancashire Cricket Board Cup. He last played in England on South Africa A’s tour in May and June 2017, when he made 66 runs in four 50-over innings and a single in each trip to the crease in a four-day match. His effort this week is his best anywhere since he reached a career-high 203 not out in a domestic first-class match in October 2021. In eight subsequent innings in the format he has twice passed 50.

Zondo’s latest effort has complicated South Africa’s selection deliberations. He batted at No. 7 with Ryan Rickleton, Rassie van der Dussen and Aiden Markram above him. All could be competing for one place in the Test XI. Markram made 10 and Van der Dussen 75 in the first innings, and they were 20 and eight not out at stumps on Thursday. Rickleton suffered a first-baller on Tuesday.

The naked numbers say Zondo has done the most among them to crack the nod, but rarely are these matters so simple. Markram played himself back into confidence and form at the IPL, and just more than three weeks ago Van der Dussen, a reassuring presence in South Africa’s line-up, scored a yeoman 134 in extreme heat in the first ODI in Chester-le-Street. Rickleton reeled off two centuries, a 95 and three half-centuries in eight first-class innings for Northamptonshire in June and July.

You might have heard Zondo’s name mentioned for reasons other than his achievements on a cricket ground. In October 2015 he was, at then captain AB de Villiers’ insistence — and with the acquiescence of Hussein Manack, the selector on tour — left out for the deciding match of an ODI series at the Wankhede. CSA investigated and decided his omission was wrong, and Zondo’s testimony to the Social Justice and Nation Building project in August last year revealed how deeply affected he had been by his treatment.

“I switched off mentally for the rest of the day and I detached myself from the team because it was clear I was not wanted,” Zondo said. “Switching off helped me cope with everything that was happening. The hardest part was watching players who were selected ahead of me having the opportunity to shine for South Africa on a world stage, in India, and having a chance to play and potentially impress and get future IPL opportunities.”

Dean Elgar’s flight to India for the subsequent Test series was brought forward to enable him, rather than Zondo, to feature in the white-ball decider. It is not often remembered that South Africa piled up 438/4 in that match, with Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis and De Villiers all scoring centuries, and also largely unhighlighted that the visitors won by 214 runs. Neither is it recalled that Elgar took guard at No. 7 with four balls left in the innings, faced only two of them and finished five not out. Was Zondo, albeit then uncapped, honestly not trusted to do something similar, or better?

If you’ve heard Zondo’s name for still another reason, it might be because his father, Raymond Zondo, was appointed South Africa’s chief justice in March. In June 2017 Zondo senior was named as the presiding high court judge in an inquiry into allegations of state capture and corruption during Jacob Zuma’s tenure as president from May 2009 to February 2018. In a damning and shocking report that runs to more than 5,000 pages, Zondo found that “the [ruling party] ANC under Zuma permitted, supported and enabled corruption”.

Zondo junior and the rest of South Africa’s squad have found in England circumstances that will feel oddly familiar to them. They are no strangers to the water restrictions that are being implemented here, and the planned power outages that loom because of the surge in energy prices — prompted by Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine — are common on the sharp tip of Africa.

Then there are the dots connected by history. When the English refer to 1976 as their last properly hot summer, they’re not only talking about the weather. In the build-up to a Test series that year, Tony Greig said of his team’s imminent opponents: “You must remember that the West Indians, these guys, if they get on top are magnificent cricketers. But if they’re down, they grovel, and I intend to make them grovel.”

Greig’s words, spoken in the thick, rough accent of the Eastern Cape of his birth, where he had leaned on his privilege and the luck of having a Scottish father to make the leap to England, did not land well. A white South African who had failed to denounce apartheid or racism telling black people he wanted to make them grovel?

Michael Holding and Andy Roberts answered the question on behalf of millions worldwide by taking 28 wickets each in the series, and Viv Richards and Gordon Greenidge by scoring three centuries each. And they were only the brightest stars in West Indies’ 3-0 triumph.

Also in 1976, indeed during that series, South Africa’s winter was turned white hot by government’s insistence that Afrikaans — the language of the country’s oppressors — be used in black schools. The reaction was what became known as the Soweto Uprising, which killed between 176 and 700 mostly young people and lit the touchpaper for what became, in 1994, the defeat at the ballot box of apartheid.

Raymond Zondo was 16 when Soweto’s flames were lit, and almost 34 when Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first rightfully elected president. Khaya Zondo is 32 and still fighting for fairness. Will he get it on Wednesday? And, if he does, will it rain? In Africa, that would be a blessing. But not at Lord’s.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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The ongoing torment of Thami Tsolekile

Banned for 12 years, Tsolekile originally stood to be slapped with three life terms and additional suspensions.

TELFORD VICE | Cape Town

ANOTHER day, another drama in South African cricket. On Tuesday, Thami Tsolekile made startling claims of about the investigation into the fixing scandal that blighted the 2015 Ram Slam T20, a franchise competition. On Friday, Cricket South Africa (CSA) rubbished Tsolekile’s allegations. The South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) are known to be planning a careful rebuttal of what he has said about them. Lawyers for people Tsolekile has put in the spotlight are no doubt compiling defamation cases as we speak.

Tsolekile was banned for 12 years in August 2016 after being found guilty of “contriving to fix a match or matches …; failing to disclose to the CSA anti-corruption officer the full details of an approach to engage in corrupt conduct; failing to disclose full details of matters evidencing a breach of the code by another participant; and obstructing or delaying the investigation by destroying evidence that was relevant to the investigation”.

CSA revealed the former Test wicketkeeper’s fate along with that of Pumi Matshikwe, Ethy Mbhalati and Jean Symes, who were banned for shorter periods. The release announcing their punishment included a quote attributed to then CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat that “all of these players eventually admitted their misconduct and co-operated with the investigators” and that they had “shown remorse for their actions”. The statement included apologies and assertions of regret and shame from three of the four players. The odd man out was Tsolekile.

“Not even once have I apologised,” Tsolekile said on one of the state broadcaster’s radio stations on Tuesday. “I didn’t apologise because I felt the investigation was not fair.” He said he had not been furnished with recordings of his interviews with anti-corruption officials, as he had been promised, that he had not been given a charge sheet or shown the evidence against him, that he had denied the services of the lawyer he requested, that the lawyer who did represent him did so poorly, that SACA had not acted in his interests, that he had been compelled to accept his guilt, and that the probe targetted black players implicated more than the whites involved.

A source close to the investigation, who spoke to Cricbuzz on condition of anonymity, painted a different picture of a process that also cost Gulam Bodi, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Alviro Petersen their credibility in cricket. The inquiry used cellphone tracking to plot the suspects’ whereabouts at particular times — when they were thought to have met with figures in the gambling underworld — then asked them to explain why they were where they were when they were there. According to the source, all of the players lied in their initial responses. They were told of the discrepancies between what they had said and what the evidence laid bare, and asked if they wanted to revise their versions. They did, offering greater cooperation.

On Tuesday, Tsolekile detailed allegations put to him that he had accepted the equivalent of USD49,827, at Friday’s exchange rate, in illicit cash at rendezvous in four locations. But he was not found guilty of taking money. That, the source said, was thanks to the skilful negotiation of his lawyers. In terms of the ICC’s mandatory sentencing provisions, Tsolekile originally stood to be slapped with three life bans and additional years of suspension.

“At no time did any of the players or their respective attorneys submit that they were coerced into admitting their guilt or signing their sanction agreements,” CSA’s release on Friday said. “They did so willingly and, in fact, were consulted on, and provided input into, the respective press releases announcing confirmation of the offences to which they had admitted. Audio and video recordings were made of all the interviews with all the participants and now form part of the ongoing criminal investigation.

“On the allegation made by Mr Tsolekile that he was not presented with any evidence and did not receive any charges, [retired high court judge Bernard Ngoepe, the investigation’s independent chair] said: ‘This is not the truth. Mr Tsolekile received a formal charge sheet as is required under the [anti-corruption] code. He was also presented with extensive evidence in the presence of his lawyer.’

“As regards the accusations relating to alleged discrimination, judge Ngoepe said: ‘The allegation that the investigation deliberately targeted black players must also be rejected. Both white and black players were investigated and charged, based on the evidence that was collected and presented.’”

Tsolekile said CSA had failed to act against Vaughn van Jaarsveld and Robbie Frylinck despite, he claimed, their involvement in fixing. Friday’s release disputed that: “As regards the allegation that Vaughn van Jaarsveld was approached by Mr Bodi and failed to disclose this approach, CSA confirms that both he and Craig Alexander were approached by Mr Bodi and both players reported the matter to SACA and to the ACU [anti-corruption unit] as required by [the] CSA anti-corruption code and the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act. Their possible involvement in the matchfixing scheme was fully investigated not only by the investigating team but also by the Hawks [an elite police unit] and they were cleared of any wrongdoing.”

The release quoted Ngoepe as saying: “Both Vaughn and Craig must be commended for doing the right thing. They acted with courage and integrity, notwithstanding the pressure that was placed upon them.”

Louis Cole, CSA’s anti-corruption officer, was quoted as saying: “The allegation of matchfixing during the [2014] Champions League by Mr Frylinck was never mentioned by Mr Tsolelike during his interviews with ACU. Both Mr Alexander and Van Jaarsveld reported to the ACU that Mr Bodi had mentioned this as part of his approach. Although that relates to a separate tournament outside South Africa and falls under the jurisdiction of the ICC, it was referred to the ICC ACU for investigation. At no stage prior to the Ram Slam investigation did Mr Tsolekile or any other player provide any evidence to substantiate this claim as required by the code.

“According to Mr Bodi, he requested Mr Van Jaarsveld to recruit Mr Frylinck to participate in the match fixing scheme. This aspect was thoroughly investigated, including interviewing one of the bookmakers in India, and no evidence was uncovered to support the possibility that Mr Frylinck had been recruited.”

Tsolekile said investigators had “called me the ringleader” and “that’s why I was given a 12-year ban”. But Bodi was hit with a ban of 20 years. In October last year, he was jailed for five years on eight counts of corruption — a sword still hanging over the heads of Tsolekile and the other five fixers, at least some of whom are increasingly likely to be criminally charged.

And there could yet be a sequel to all this nastiness, as a release on Saturday suggested: “CSA followed due process in all aspects of the investigations into that incident, and all cricket players that were implicated where provided with legal advice and representation by the players’ union. If there is credible evidence that players who signed admission of guilt documents did so under duress or coercion, without full due process, or if the process was compromised in any way, CSA will ensure that the relevant bodies give these issues appropriate attention, and will review the cases as appropriate.”

Van Jaarsveld and Frylinck are white, as were many of the investigators. Tsolekile never mentioned Alexander, who is brown. While we’re at it, Ngoepe is black. Just like Tsolekile. This is pertinent, because a poisoned river of racial rhetoric is raging through a game that is suffering, perhaps irreparably, from a drought of provable truth.

Prominent sections of South Africa’s mainstream media, particularly the state broadcaster, are pushing a narrative heavy on one-sided testimony and light on interrogating what has been said — even when others have been named and implicated. In the process, what could be held up to the light as fact is manipulated and mangled.

The perpetrators of this damaging, dangerous right-wing tendency must know that every assertion exposed as false, or even as not unimpeachably true, is a victory for racism and a setback for the just and ongoing cause of eradicating the discrimination against black and brown people and the white privilege that continues to condemn supposedly democratic South Africa to hopeless inequality.

There is more than enough authentic substantiation of systemic racism in the country’s past and present to drive efforts for a better future without having to resort to invention. What there isn’t enough of is sincere action, largely by the powerful and the affluent, most of them white, towards that future. Instead there is a rash of jumping on bandwagons, which provides perfect cover for denial. Haven’t these people heard: Black Lives Matter.

Much more care is needed if Tsolekile is to be allowed the chance to regain his integrity. He is undoubtedly a victim of the past, and he is discovering that the present is cruel and cynical. Let the future not also fail him.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Without corruption, cricket would wither

Cricket’s dirty old secret: it needs matchfixing like a bicycle needs wheels.

Times Select

TELFORD VICE in London

A reporter walks into a hipster coffee joint on Whitechapel Road in London’s East End. He orders an espresso at the counter, then sits down and prepares to write a story on newly made claims of matchfixing in cricket.

So he needs wifi. He tries to sign in to the café’s complementary connection but it doesn’t want to know. He looks down the list of available networks and the only other open option is — here’s the punchline, folks — Ladbrokes, the betting shop, which has a branch nearby. Come on in, friend, say Ladbrokes, who soon have the reporter’s email address.

They’ve already been in touch, boasting “best odds guaranteed”, “VIP experiences”, “in-shop machine offers”, and “great offers on the go”.

This, then, comes to you courtesy of the good people of the gambling industry and the customers whose money feeds the beast.

And who between them, cricket says, are stealing the game’s soul by paying players to do their evil bidding.

The latest episode in this ongoing and sorry saga has been broadcast by al-Jazeera, who alleged this week that 15 international matches were tainted by 26 instances of spotfixing in 2011 and 2012. The channel’s first foray into this territory hit the airwaves in May.

al-Jazeera say their sources’ predictions for how many runs would be scored at an agreed point in an innings — you can place bets on what that number of runs will be — were proved correct 25 times out of 26.

Cricket’s response has been to huff and to puff, and to demand that al-Jazeera blow their own house down by co-operating with anti-corruption officials. al-Jazeera have said they will put their trust in Interpol.

“The ICC [International Cricket Council] is committed to working to uphold integrity in cricket,” a statement quoted anti-corruption unit manager Alex Marshall as saying.

“As you would expect we will again take the contents of the programme and any allegations it may make seriously and will investigate fully. However I must refute the assertion that cricket does not take the issue of corruption seriously, we have more resources than ever before working to rid our sport of corruption.

“The investigation into these allegations has already commenced and will run alongside a number of other live unrelated investigations. When considering the claims we will work with professional independent betting analysts. “As with the first programme we have and will continue to ask for the co-operation of the broadcaster. We have made repeated efforts to engage with the broadcaster as it can play such a crucial part in the full and thorough investigation it has called for.

“We do welcome the commitment from the broadcaster to share the files with Interpol and, I hope, other law enforcement agencies who can act upon the information and support us in ridding the sport of these criminals.”

Here’s Cricket Australia (CA) chief executive James Sutherland: “CA takes a zero-tolerance approach against anyone trying to compromise the integrity of the game, and to suggest anything otherwise is unsubstantiated and incorrect.

“Prior to the broadcast of al-Jazeera’s documentary CA’s integrity unit conducted a review of the latest claims by al-Jazeera, from a known criminal source, and, from the limited information provided by al-Jazeera, our team have not identified any issues of corruption by any current or former player …”

So, because CA’s people can’t find what al-Jazeera say they have found the latter’s claims are “unsubstantiated and incorrect”?

What kind of bullshit argument is that? Because the umpires and the match referee don’t see you rubbing sandpaper on the ball doesn’t mean sandpaper has not been rubbed on the ball.

As for the ICC, they clearly don’t understand how journalism works. If al-Jazeera were to spill the beans why would their current sources keep trusting them and how would they cultivate new sources? Their credibility would be worth as little as crooked cricketers’.

Maintaining the good of the game is not the press’ responsibility. That’s for the suits to think about, and if they can’t see that exposing corruption is indeed for the good of the game they should be drummed out of cricket.

They should be only too pleased that someone is shining a light on their most pressing challenge, not trying to co-opt that light and bring it under their control. Then again, suits don’t like to be told how to do their jobs properly, especially when they aren’t doing their jobs properly.

Conversely, journalists who out themselves as fans should be summarily sacked: their audiences cannot trust embedded stooges to tell the truth.

Unless, that is, those journalists know and act on the bulletproof principle that they owe their loyalty to their readers, listeners and viewers, and not to the source of the freebies nudged their way.

No-one should arrive at a cricket ground expecting free entry, free desk space, free power points, free wifi and free food and drink. But take any of those away and reporters will toss tantrums that would impress a two-year-old.

So we don’t see reporting on the clear conflict of betting companies sponsoring major teams. Instead we see betting companies advertising on some of sport journalism’s biggest platforms.

Maybe that’s why we’ve seen at best tepid acknowledgment in the mainstream press that al-Jazeera may be onto something. Mostly we’ve seen flaccid dismissals of the documentary on the grounds that not enough names have been named. And this from people who know that using the right names at the wrong time will get them sued just as easily as using the wrong names at the right time.

These are the some of the same people who will be noisily outraged if the free wifi in the pressbox is a touch slow or the caterers run out of free cake at the tea interval.

The best case scenario is that they’re pissed off that they don’t have the story al-Jazeera do, and the worst that they know the alarming truth and don’t want to tell it.

Here it is: fixing has been an important part of cricket’s success as an industry for more than 200 years and is crucial to the game’s continued growth and prosperity.

Gambling built Lord’s, whose website informs us breathlessly that, “Around £20 000 was bet on a series of games between Old Etonians and England in 1751!” That’s right, exclamation mark and all. By 1787 Thomas Lord — that’s his name on the tin of cricket’s poshest ground — was cashing in on the market.

The modern incarnation of all that is the growth explosion in the T20 market, which serves up bottomless fodder for bookmakers and punters alike.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce estimates that the betting market in that country is worth US$60-billion, and that 80% of it — or US$48-billion — is spent on cricket. All good, except that you cannot legally bet on cricket in India.

So, in the same way that authorities struggle to protect sex workers from abuse in places where sex work is criminalised, there is little cricket can do about fixing where it matters most.

Whether cricket wants to do something about fixing in India is the more pertinent question, perhaps even more so whether something should be done.

Cricket knows that India keeps it financially healthy, and that for the money to keep rolling in Indians placing bets on ever further flung and less relevant tournaments in the fastest growing (only growing?) version of the game have to be tolerated; protected even.

Like the banks that failed the world in 2008, cricket’s betting market is too big to be allowed to fail. The game has always needed gambling like a bicycle needs wheels, and that won’t change. And where there is gambling there will be corruption.

Corruption is against the law? As is betting on cricket in India? Since when has capitalism respected any law that doesn’t promote or at least safeguard its own interests? Politicians use prostitutes, don’t they?

Those questions have been brought to you by Ladbrokes. They might also have the answers.