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| Issue No 97 |  |
25 May 2001 |
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The Locker RoomJim Marr - Crisis What Crisis?
Cricket in Crisis has been a headline floating around newspaper pages now for years but, surely, implications of the match-fixing drama are being overstated Probably the most important gauge of any international sport's health is the crowds it is attracting at top level and Test cricket, on that score, isn't travelling too badly at all. Winning teams - Australian, India and England, believe it or not - have been attracting full houses while battlers, like New Zealand and Zimbabwe, have struggled for support. Nothing too odd about that. Sure match-fixing is a problem, a blight on the game that needs to be clean bowled but, thankfully for cricket fans, it has come to light when the sport is in rare good health. Former British copper Sir Paul Condon sparked another round of doom and gloom with his report, released last week. There were lurid tales of kidnapping and murder but, to be fair, not a lot of solid fact to back up the allegations - typical of much of the innuendo that swept around the game in recent years. It was also Condon's idea to scratch the deeds of convicted cheats from official records. Players the calibre of Hansie Cronje, Salim Malik and Mohammed Azzarudhin played well and courageously for their countries and that shouldn't ever be denied. If anything, it only adds length to their falls from grace. They were not no-hopers who took the easy way out but talented sportsmen, rich beyond most fans' comprehensions, whose greed got the better of them. And while their names have been sullied there is no reason to question the achievements of opponents, especially not at test level. Cheating, in its many forms has always been with us, and probably always will be. But the depth of cynicism portrayed by elements of the media is unwarranted. Shane Warne may not be your ideal role model but he was a fine leg spinner and the slurs cast against him and Mark Waugh were largely unwarranted. There is a mile of difference between between providing pitch, weather and team selection news to bookmakers and throwing matches. Stupidity is not villainy. Sure, one can lead to the other, but the fact Waugh and Warne went public over Malik's approaches only lent credence to their claims of naivety. And one good thing that must come out of the whole affair is the lessening in frequency and importance of one-day cricket. Outside the World Cup, most one-day matches are meaningless. They are a cash-cow the game has milked and should be trimmed back dramatically. Match-fixing is a problem but the best response has been the style of game adopted by Steve Waugh and his Australians and, to be fair, taken up in more recent times by the Indians and Poms. You don't get better sport anywhere than the recent Australia-India series, so good that the fact matches took five days became a plus rather than a negative. Mitigating against these developments is the new international test standings format that gives points over series, rather than individual tests. The great thing Waugh has brought to cricket has been a passionate belief that every match is important in its own right. Even an administrative nod towards the idea of dead rubbers and meaningless games raises prospects of a return to the aimless drudgery just about strangled the game and, just maybe, even worse. Like most sport, cricket will live or die on the attitudes and performances of its elite players, rather than the failings of flawed individuals.
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   Interview: The Big BribeACTU president Sharan Burrow emerges from the Federal Budget lock-up to ask where is the Howard Government�s vision for the future? Compo: Where To Now?As the dust settles in the WorkCover war, we look at what's been achieved and what still needs to be resolved. Unions: The Real Big BrotherHave you ever got the feeling someone is watching you? If you work in one of the 4000 Call Centres in Australia then you�re probably right. International: The Not-So Shakey IslesNZ Council of Trade Union secretary Paul Goulter looks at life for the workers under a Labour Government. Corporate: BHP: The Bit AustralianThe BHP Billiton merger was an act of corporate tyranny. And, as Zoe Reynolds report, humanity does not figure on a corporate balance sheet. History: A Proud Tradition of MediocrityBudgets always generate hype and a media circus, especially in the lead up to elections. This one is no exception and the Coalition consistency in panic and lack of ideas is reassuring in its lack of ideas. Review: Ideologically SoundMark Hebblewhite trawls through the CD rack to dispel the notion that there's no politics left in pop. Satire: HIH Recovers Own LossesThe collapsed insurance company HIH has lodged a claim with another insurer to be reimbursed for its $4 billion loss.
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