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http://thearmchairselector.com/2012/11/how-does-spot-fixing-work-an-interview-with-ed-hawkins/
Match fixing rumours won’t go away. They are increasing. We have had allegations of players, umpires and officials being involved in corrupting the game and attempting to make a profit out of influencing results. Players have been jailed for conspiracy to defraud a bookmaker and for accepting corrupt payments. There have been bans handed down by the cricketing authorities. The ICC assures us that the Anti Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) will be given all the resources they need to combat the issue. So with all these penalties and resources being thrown at the problem, why isn’t the problem decreasing?
Ed Hawkins, Author of a newly released book on the subject spoke to The Armchair Selector about match fixing. He made the decision to look into the allegations of match fixing in the summer of 2009 and travelled to India to spend time living with a bookmaker and seeing how he goes about his business. After the Lord’s “no balls for cash” scandal, Hawkins decided to turn his findings into a book.
Hawkins said: “There has been a huge amount of misinformation regarding the events surrounding the no ball allegations and how this relates to the Indian bookmaking markets. It is not possible to bet on events like a no ball or a batsman getting out for under 25 runs in India. It is a lot more subtle than that. Understanding that makes you realise how spot fixing works. There are only 4 markets in India, match results, who will be the “lunch favourite”, innings runs and the sessional brackets. The way corruptors work is to manipulate those markets. It is within this sessional brackets markets that spot fixing will occur. A no ball in an ODI or a T20 will affect the run projection odds that bookmakers are offering as will knowing when a batsman is going to get out.”
So the question we need to ask is what were those behind the no balls were up to? According to Hawkins, there is clear evidence that Mazhar Majeed, the man acting as the middle man between the Pakistani players and the News of the World reporters, had little understanding of how the betting markets worked. Majeed asked the newspaper reporters “You can bet on no balls then?” When they told him yes he took the money and put in the fix.
“When Majeed was told by those he was talking to that you could bet on no balls in India it should of set alarm bells ringing” Hawkins said. “He either knew less than he claimed or thought he had found a mug to take easy money from.”
This is not to say that Pakistani trio were not guilty of wrong doing, but it shows how naive people can be when there are piles of cash lying on the table in front of you.
Here in the UK you can bet legally on various in game outcomes, such as runs scored from a certain over, or who the next batsman dismissed. Hawkins says that although it is possible to bet on these events, it is not something that would be open to a fix. He says “You can bet on the number of runs scored in the over and other such outcomes, but you would never be able to bet enough to make money from a fix. The amounts that you can bet on those events are so small that you would have to place a massive amount of bets to make this pay. If I were a bookmaker and you came to me and said you had £1000 to bet on a certain over being a maiden, the first question I would ask is what do you know that I don’t. There would be huge suspicion of a fix.”
“This is an area where the ACSU might fall down. They may believe that you can bet on these things , but you can’t. They lack betting expertise but it is difficult to criticise them. They are all former policemen and betting can be quite a complicated subject for the layman to get to grips with. One of the problems for the ACSU is that they must hear a lot about matches, choosing the right ones to focus on must be difficult”.
As much as the betting and bookmaking industry in India is illegal and the transactions take place under the table, it would be a mistake to think that there are anything other than professionals running these operations. Bookmaking is run as a business and these markets in India are as sensitive to the prospect of being cheated as any other betting industry would be.
“These bookmakers are highly organised, there are 4 syndicates providing odds across the county. All the bookmakers are using odds that are almost the same.” Hawkins told us. “It works on a kind of franchise basis. The bookies are paying a fee to the syndicates to subscribe to their service. If one of these syndicates get inside information they can manipulate odds in their favour to get armies of punters to bet at lower odds that they would want to. That is how they make their money.”
It is not just the bookmakers that are seeking inside information. Increasingly the punters are attempting to gain access to players in an attempt to gain an advantage in these betting markets.
“Punters do cheat the bookmakers too. The bookmakers I speak to are saying that this is happening more often. Those wanting to cheat a bookie are going to the players, making friends with them and saying ‘can you do this one favour for me’ and then they will go around and place bets with various bookmakers, getting their friends to do the same, fanning the bets out. That is how the punter makes his money.”
One of the biggest stories to emerge from Hawkins’ book is the fact that he was sent an email during the 2011 World Cup semi final between India and Pakistan that appeared to be a script of what would happen in the game. This accusation of a fix in what many regard to be the biggest game in history has caused quite a stir. When this part of the book was serialised in the Daily Mail there was an angry reaction from many quarters. One of the first to comment on the accusations was Saeed Ajmal, the Pakistan off spinner who played in that match.
Speaking to the Duniya news channel Ajmal said that such claims were totally false and went on to say, “I think these allegations are being made now to just spoil our coming tour to India. There is no substance to the story. I played in the semi final and I know how every player fought tooth and nail in it”.
When Hawkins was asked about this accusation of an attempt to sabotage the upcoming tour of India by Ajmal’s side he said that he did not even know that Pakistan were playing India in December. He told us “People in India and Pakistan think that there is some sort of conspiracy against them. This is not an Indian problem, it is not a Pakistan problem, it’s a world problem and I have been saying that throughout. I always talk about Mervyn Westfield in county cricket and the Kent vs Sussex game that is being investigated by the ACSU. The other point I make is that the English invented match fixing back in the 1700s. You can try and stamp this out, but you never will because human beings are involved. 21 of those on the pitch might be extremely moral, but you only need one who isn’t and you have a spot fix going on.”
Any allegations relating to a specific match are difficult to prove without the kind of damning evidence we saw in the case of the Pakistani players at Lord’s. It may well be impossible to know the full extent of the corruption that takes place in cricket. However it is vital that we don’t decide that such allegations are false because they are difficult to prove. Mentioning individual matches will always engender an emotional response from the fans, players and officials of the teams involved. If we value integrity in cricket then those that love the game need to take allegations seriously.
Match fixing is the biggest threat to cricket, because if fans can’t trust the veracity of results why would they watch. It is by understanding how a fix will work that all those who are involved in the game will better placed to combat it.
Follow Peter on Twitter – @TheCricketGeek
Match fixing rumours won’t go away. They are increasing. We have had allegations of players, umpires and officials being involved in corrupting the game and attempting to make a profit out of influencing results. Players have been jailed for conspiracy to defraud a bookmaker and for accepting corrupt payments. There have been bans handed down by the cricketing authorities. The ICC assures us that the Anti Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) will be given all the resources they need to combat the issue. So with all these penalties and resources being thrown at the problem, why isn’t the problem decreasing?
Ed Hawkins, Author of a newly released book on the subject spoke to The Armchair Selector about match fixing. He made the decision to look into the allegations of match fixing in the summer of 2009 and travelled to India to spend time living with a bookmaker and seeing how he goes about his business. After the Lord’s “no balls for cash” scandal, Hawkins decided to turn his findings into a book.
Hawkins said: “There has been a huge amount of misinformation regarding the events surrounding the no ball allegations and how this relates to the Indian bookmaking markets. It is not possible to bet on events like a no ball or a batsman getting out for under 25 runs in India. It is a lot more subtle than that. Understanding that makes you realise how spot fixing works. There are only 4 markets in India, match results, who will be the “lunch favourite”, innings runs and the sessional brackets. The way corruptors work is to manipulate those markets. It is within this sessional brackets markets that spot fixing will occur. A no ball in an ODI or a T20 will affect the run projection odds that bookmakers are offering as will knowing when a batsman is going to get out.”
So the question we need to ask is what were those behind the no balls were up to? According to Hawkins, there is clear evidence that Mazhar Majeed, the man acting as the middle man between the Pakistani players and the News of the World reporters, had little understanding of how the betting markets worked. Majeed asked the newspaper reporters “You can bet on no balls then?” When they told him yes he took the money and put in the fix.
“When Majeed was told by those he was talking to that you could bet on no balls in India it should of set alarm bells ringing” Hawkins said. “He either knew less than he claimed or thought he had found a mug to take easy money from.”
This is not to say that Pakistani trio were not guilty of wrong doing, but it shows how naive people can be when there are piles of cash lying on the table in front of you.
Here in the UK you can bet legally on various in game outcomes, such as runs scored from a certain over, or who the next batsman dismissed. Hawkins says that although it is possible to bet on these events, it is not something that would be open to a fix. He says “You can bet on the number of runs scored in the over and other such outcomes, but you would never be able to bet enough to make money from a fix. The amounts that you can bet on those events are so small that you would have to place a massive amount of bets to make this pay. If I were a bookmaker and you came to me and said you had £1000 to bet on a certain over being a maiden, the first question I would ask is what do you know that I don’t. There would be huge suspicion of a fix.”
“This is an area where the ACSU might fall down. They may believe that you can bet on these things , but you can’t. They lack betting expertise but it is difficult to criticise them. They are all former policemen and betting can be quite a complicated subject for the layman to get to grips with. One of the problems for the ACSU is that they must hear a lot about matches, choosing the right ones to focus on must be difficult”.
As much as the betting and bookmaking industry in India is illegal and the transactions take place under the table, it would be a mistake to think that there are anything other than professionals running these operations. Bookmaking is run as a business and these markets in India are as sensitive to the prospect of being cheated as any other betting industry would be.
“These bookmakers are highly organised, there are 4 syndicates providing odds across the county. All the bookmakers are using odds that are almost the same.” Hawkins told us. “It works on a kind of franchise basis. The bookies are paying a fee to the syndicates to subscribe to their service. If one of these syndicates get inside information they can manipulate odds in their favour to get armies of punters to bet at lower odds that they would want to. That is how they make their money.”
It is not just the bookmakers that are seeking inside information. Increasingly the punters are attempting to gain access to players in an attempt to gain an advantage in these betting markets.
“Punters do cheat the bookmakers too. The bookmakers I speak to are saying that this is happening more often. Those wanting to cheat a bookie are going to the players, making friends with them and saying ‘can you do this one favour for me’ and then they will go around and place bets with various bookmakers, getting their friends to do the same, fanning the bets out. That is how the punter makes his money.”
One of the biggest stories to emerge from Hawkins’ book is the fact that he was sent an email during the 2011 World Cup semi final between India and Pakistan that appeared to be a script of what would happen in the game. This accusation of a fix in what many regard to be the biggest game in history has caused quite a stir. When this part of the book was serialised in the Daily Mail there was an angry reaction from many quarters. One of the first to comment on the accusations was Saeed Ajmal, the Pakistan off spinner who played in that match.
Speaking to the Duniya news channel Ajmal said that such claims were totally false and went on to say, “I think these allegations are being made now to just spoil our coming tour to India. There is no substance to the story. I played in the semi final and I know how every player fought tooth and nail in it”.
When Hawkins was asked about this accusation of an attempt to sabotage the upcoming tour of India by Ajmal’s side he said that he did not even know that Pakistan were playing India in December. He told us “People in India and Pakistan think that there is some sort of conspiracy against them. This is not an Indian problem, it is not a Pakistan problem, it’s a world problem and I have been saying that throughout. I always talk about Mervyn Westfield in county cricket and the Kent vs Sussex game that is being investigated by the ACSU. The other point I make is that the English invented match fixing back in the 1700s. You can try and stamp this out, but you never will because human beings are involved. 21 of those on the pitch might be extremely moral, but you only need one who isn’t and you have a spot fix going on.”
Any allegations relating to a specific match are difficult to prove without the kind of damning evidence we saw in the case of the Pakistani players at Lord’s. It may well be impossible to know the full extent of the corruption that takes place in cricket. However it is vital that we don’t decide that such allegations are false because they are difficult to prove. Mentioning individual matches will always engender an emotional response from the fans, players and officials of the teams involved. If we value integrity in cricket then those that love the game need to take allegations seriously.
Match fixing is the biggest threat to cricket, because if fans can’t trust the veracity of results why would they watch. It is by understanding how a fix will work that all those who are involved in the game will better placed to combat it.
Follow Peter on Twitter – @TheCricketGeek
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