Beware cricket's new corridor of uncertainty
An ongoing spot fixing case in South Africa shows how the digital economy has provided cricket with one of her greatest challenges
Last August, Farhaan Behardien, the former Protea white-ball all-rounder, stood before a group of fifty cricketers in Stellenbosch outside of Cape Town, glanced at his notes and cleared his throat.
Behardien, representing the SA Cricketers' Association (SACA), was there to tell the gathering the why and wherefores of match-fixing. Later he would tell them what to do if they received an approach during an about-to-happen domestic T10 tournament hosted by Boland Cricket (BC).
Some of these players were professionals, either a couple of years past 30 or just shy of it. Others had just left school. One of them was a shelf packer at a local supermarket. We are not being hyperbolic to suggest that he was more familiar with baked beans in tomato sauce than he was with spot-betting.
