THREE PAKISTAN cricketers, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer have brought the game, which was once called a gentleman’s game, into shame. In the process they have become the first cricketers who have been jailed for their involvement in match fixing cases. The date November, 3, 2011, will be remembered as the worst day in international cricket, when these players were punished for their acts. But one has to wonder, are these players at fault, as everyone suggests? But we have to ask the Pakistan Cricket board, what were they doing, when such kind of things were going on? Did they not know about it? Were they also a part of the deal? Were they sleeping?

It is surprising that Pakistan always gets a bad name in cricket and still the Pakistan cricket administrators do not do anything about it. One look at the history of various incidents would draw a sorry figure for the cricket fan in Pakistan. Players like Salim Mailk have also been involved in match fixing in the past. Bob Woolmer’s sudden death during his reign as a Pakistan cricket team also brought a bad name to Pakistan cricket. Still, the Pakistan team management has not learnt a lesson and these kinds of incidents are making things worse for Pakistan cricket. Now, it’s a matter of self-respect for Pakistan Cricket board. Are they not concerned about the future of Pakistan cricket, which finds a mention in each and every controversy?

The history of cricket has witnessed several players such as Manoj Prabhakar, Ajay Jadeja, Hansie Cronje, Marlon Samuels and add to the list, these 3 Pakistan players mentioned in the story, punished for match fixing. Apart from these three players, rest of them were banned from cricket for some time period. So one has to wonder how the respective boards can put a stop to these. Yes, they can, by bringing in some strict regulations and penalising the players themselves, before the decision is taken by the ICC. Thus, Pakistan Cricket has failed on this front, as they do not levy heavy punishments to people, who are involved in such acts of indiscipline.

There have been incidents when they have taken actions against players by dropping them from the team. But the management is too weak that they bring back the player into the team quickly, if he is an important member of the team. Though the Pakistan Management has shown disappointment over these three players involved in match fixing, but they could have stopped this match fixing scandal tarnishing their image by starting their own investigation and come up with a conclusion, which they did not. Hence, what is this management for, which had several differences in the past within themselves? They need to get their act together, else Pakistan cricket may never wake up.

Still, there is some positive thing that has come out of the punishment that has been meted out to the 3 Pakistani cricketers, who have been jailed. Now, we may see a gradual decline in match –fixing cases, as cricketers were earlier, only banned for their acts, but with players being jailed, they might have to think twice and may be even thrice, before they plunge into the dark side of cricket (match fixing).