Essay: Challenges Faced By NZ Cricket Council: Match-Fixing Scandals

Context

Discuss About The Challenges International Cricket Council?

The name of the company that has been selected for the current assignment is New Zealand cricket which was formerly known as the New Zealand Cricket Council. It is the governing body for professional cricket in New Zealand. The organization is headquartered in Christchurch, New Zealand (Ryan, 2004). The New Zealand cricket is in the sports industry. It specializes in governing the professional cricket team of New Zealand. Cricket is one of the highest and most famous profile summer sports in New Zealand. Cricket industry has spread out across numerous nations of the world, and various tournaments are held in different countries (Blackshaw, 2013).

New Zealand Cricket Council governs the professional cricket in New Zealand. It operates the New Zealand cricket team, organizes one-day internationals with other nations as well as test tours. It also organizes numerous domestic cricket within New Zealand that includes Plunket Shield first-class competition, the Ford Trophy local one-day competition as well as the Burger King Super Smash domestic 20-20 competition (Nzc.nz, 2017).

The vision of New Zealand cricket is to make New Zealand cricket team one of the world's best cricket teams in sports history. The mission of New Zealand cricket is to organize cricket matches in international and within private grounds. It also aims to train talented and young cricketers into professional cricket players. New Zealand cricket also seeks to make the cricket team of New Zealand is one of the best teams in the history of sports (Blackshaw, 2013).

The latest primary challenge that affected the New Zealand Cricket group is the accusation of match-fixing  on the former team captain Chris Cairns by the then Chairman of the Indian Premier Lalit Modi. Modi accused Chris that he was involved match-fixing during the 2008 Indian Cricket League in which he participated.  It was ascertained by the London court that Chris had convinced his team-mate to fix matches with him. This made Chris to be regarded as a hero and role model who had played for his country for over 17 years (Khan, 2012).

However, his reputation was marred after the court indeed found him guilty and alongside Vincent, his teammate. It is marked as the most serious scandal in the history of New Zealand sports. Lalit Modi was the accuser of the New Zealand cricket team of being involved in the illegality by their captain in the 2008 Indian Cricket League, and yet it was among the leading cricket team globally (Nzherald.co.nz, 2017).

Pitfalls

The news was spread fast by the newspapers that are wide read in the UK and worldwide, that is the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph. International acclaim also was in the forefront in disseminating the allegations put forth by Lalit Modi (Nzherald.co.nz, 2017). Then the chief executive responded that they were still investigating the source of the leak to the media to assure the stakeholders and safeguard the sports’ integrity. This response was not received well by many quarters with most of them terming it as a deflecting tactic by the ICC. The cricket correspondent in the Daily Mail Paul Newman referred to the chief executive as invisible. Richardson interview with the employers was just about conducting thorough investigations into the incidence of the leaked information (Rolph, 2013). Therefore, most quarters concluded that the leak was an eye-opener to the main challenges affecting cricket which are politics and power struggle over progress (Carpenter, 2012).

Match fixing is practiced globally today. However, few nations have been accused of match-fixing alongside majority of the best teams more so in cricket. Although few countries have been directly responsible for match-fixing, most of the star teams have been involved in cricket spot match-fixing. Now the activity of match-fixing has advanced to power struggles and to control cricket by maligning the anti-corruption unit, ACSU. Typically, cricket is a systematic game and the crime of match-fixing or sport-fixing is carried out during the game.

According to Lilley (2015), the outcomes of the game are predetermined prior which is in total contradiction of the law and sports ethics. It has substantially affected New Zealand Sports cricket. Even their response to the leaked statements has been regarded by most quarters as a deflection strategy. Also, people have lost confidence in the Chief Executive and the New Zealand crickets’ team. As a result, it is believed that the scandal is all about power struggle which is weakening the authority of ICC and control the independent anti-corruption unit. Consequently, the stakeholders have lost trust in the integrity of the team leading to the loss of reputation both locally and worldwide. The former team captain and star of the New Zealand National Cricket Team Chris Cairns, was found guilty and charged for match-fixing (Carpenter, 2012).

According to the New Zealand Cricket, match-fixing has taken another dimension among the cricket stars as the act of power play to fix others for individual gain rather than for the tactical sporting reasons. For instance, the leaking of specific confidential information to the media was regarded by some as a matter of restoring the reputation of Vincent and Cairns whereas others viewed it as an actual illustration of the cricket leadership transforming to politics. Jewell (2014) asserts that technology advancement has also complicated online betting and offered easy grounds for criminals and some atheletes more so criceters to take part in match-fixing with the expectation of huge financial benefits in return. It seems that even the respected stars or instead leadership of the New Zealand cricket team like Chris Cairns, being swayed by this illegal activity and thus ready to compromise their reputation and that of the New Zealand cricket team.

Merits

The corruption of the cricket by the betting syndicate has reduced the faith of millions of followers of cricket in New Zealand. For instance, former New Zealand captain Chris Cairns who has been a role model for every young cricketer has been accused of match-fixing when he was still a star player while participating in the 2008 Indian Cricket League. This is to exert more pressure on the upcoming cricketers who will need to toil extra hard to perform in the future sports due to such corruption. It will be challenging for cricket fans to conclude that the game was conducted fairly and the player gave his best.

Even now people doubt whether indeed Chris Cairns was best in the game as he appeared to be or it was victory gained through dubious means like match-fixing (Davies, 2015). Since spot-fixing is different from total match-fixing, it is complicated to predict the spot-fixing. It usually involves manipulation. Spot-fixing is typically related to specific incidence within the game. Spot-fixing involves only a few members or minimum one member of the team. Therefore, the con is very much challenging to detect and is very much cost effective (Reade, 2014), hence the argument by the former chairman of the Indian Premier League, Lalit Modi that the New Zealand star may not have worn the 2008 Indian Cricket League.

The exposure of the illegal act of match-fixing by the then cricket hero Chris Cairns unfolded the fact that not all the critical cricket players performed genuinely and thus probed the development of the anti-corruption unit ICC to investigate any criminal allegations towards any match. The former New Zealand captain was found guilty and his reputation slandered, but the scandal increased the confidence of the stakeholders in the cricket sports industry. Also, new and upcoming players could rest assured that henceforth fairness in cricket games was to be restored at least (Davies, 2015).

The scandal has also exposed the battle for control of cricket that is always in the background. This struggle for power control has been going on for the benefit few individuals and at the expense of the success of the sport. Therefore such exposure will most likely restore the quality of the cricket sport in New Zealand and beyond.   Also, the Cairn’s scandal has sufficiently demonstrated the rot in the governance of cricket which was on its course to becoming extremely political at the expense of the beloved sport.

Additionally, the trust of the stakeholders has been reassured through the scandal, and thus this will encourage any of the investors who perhaps wanted to withdraw from cricket but instead invest more, and even others may be attracted to invest in the sport owing to the resolution and measures put in place to avoid future illegality.  These measures include the incorporation of several procedures and policies by the Governing body such as ACSU against match-fixing for any country’s cricket team. According to Harvey (2015), New Zealand cricket has also improvised a comprehensive framework that prevents and addresses any risk of match-fixing. The policies also required corporation of national sports organizations, the industry for sports betting as well as government agencies for implementing the provisions (Davies, 2015).

Match-fixing scandals cause issues and potential problems destroying the cricket game’s integrity and overall enjoyment by their fans. Since match-fixing is a fraud, it needs to be punished severely. The New Zealand cricket team scandal involving Carnis has cost the reputation of the New Zealand Cricket to fall drastically, making both New Zealand cricket fans as well as international cricket fans suspicious about them and to hate the national team (Blackshaw, 2013). The first step that New Zealand cricket team could have taken is to make the punishment for match-fixing and sport-fixing heftier. In addition to permanent burn of the guilty players or officials, the victory gained through illegal means should be restored to the second runners-up, and a penalty also imposed so that it can be clear on who was the right victor.

The anti-corruption unit, ICC should also be empowered to promptly and boldly undertake any rising cases of illegality in cricket. This can be achieved by the creation of a specific government task force that is well equipped with the police to help in investigations and to deal with any intimidations since the alleged people involved match-fixing are obviously wealthy. Often players participating in such kind of scandals should be humiliated about their actions by punishing them severely by increasing the penalty, withdrawal of any awards previously earned in addition to total burn from participating in cricket games. This will serve to deter any future involvement in the scandal Davies (2015). Government laws and policies should be incorporated that counters the spot match-fixing.

Furthermore, the cricket betting industry should be legalized. This will help to monitor the betting industry about the number of betting companies and ensure that they are registered and open to scrutiny. Thus it will be accessible to follow-up any allegations of match-fixing and decision on the winner be made in time. Like the case of the former New Zealand cricket captain whose victory was challenged years later and found to be true that he indeed was involved in match-fixing hence the reason why he was worn and was perceived to be a hero   (Harvey, 2015).

Therefore, the only potential way of mitigating the issue of spot-fixing in cricket is by making cricket betting legal. According to Jewell (2014), making the cricket betting illegal has allowed underworld characters to dominate the sports outcomes in New Zealand society. Regulating and legalizing cricket bets cannot eliminate the fixing. However, it can be put in check, since betting and bookings will be carried out in an open view. Just like the case of Carnis, if the betting companies were registered then it would have been easier to prove that the accused indeed was involved in the illegality and therefore be denied the victory and be barred in time, and this could have helped in retaining the integrity of New Zealand cricket sports (Lilley, 2015).

Conclusion

It can be concluded that the most significant sports scandals of New Zealand have made Chris  Cairns, Lou Vincent, Daryl Tuffey and others to be a part of an unethical act that ultimately diminished the reputation of New Zealand Cricket team. The scandal hampered the status of the organization making the mission and vision statements of the council look like a mere joke. Integrity and hard work is a fundamental principle in any sports. The match-fixing violates such values. The corruption by match-fixing caused the New Zealand Cricket council to lose the confidence of fans on them. It also subjected the company to become internationally recognized as a corrupted firm. The shattered reputation will also affect the sports sector of New Zealand. Cricket has been one of the essential sports of New Zealand. Since New Zealand Cricket has been the epicenter of the corruption scandal, fans will lose interest in cricket. This will result in decreased season ticket sales to the game and also impact the selling of the cricket merchandise items. Youngsters will get attracted to other sports like soccer, and cricket fans will eventually conclude that cricket is a wholly corrupted game. Further, New Zealand cricket team will also lose its reputation in the different grounds. Furthermore, the organization did not handle the scandal more efficiently because the response of the Chief executive was in itself an affirmation of the rot that existed in the cricket team. The CEO David Richardson of the organization could have come out openly and state what had happened since the scandal had gone viral after being featured both in the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph. Also, the primary objective of the CEO should have been to preserve the integrity and dignity of the organization in preference to any other including his. 

References

Blackshaw, I. (2013). Match fixing in sport: a top priority and ongoing challenge for sports governing bodies. De Jure, 46(4), 945-956.

Carpenter, K. (2012). Match-Fixing—The Biggest Threat to Sport in the 21st Century?. International sports law review, 2(1), 13-24.

Davies, C. (2015). Match and spot fixing: Challenges for the International Cricket Council.

Harvey, A. (2015). Match-fixing: Working towards an ethical framework. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 42(3), 393-407.

Jewell, S., & Reade, J. J. (2014). On Fixing International Cricket Matches (No. em-dp2014-08). Henley Business School, Reading University.

Khan, S. (2012). Case Comment: Cairns v Modi. Computer and Telecommunications Law Review, 18, 13-14.

Lilley, E. (2015). A Review of the recommendations of the'Report of the Sports Betting Integrity Panel'in assessing the progress towards tackling Match-fixing in Sport. Laws of the Game, 1(1), 37.

Nzc.nz (2017). New Zealand Cricket [online]. Retrieved from: https://nzc.nz/

Nzherald.co.nz (2017). Cricket match fixing: Who’s pulling the strings? [online]. Retrieved from: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11261043

Rolph, D. (2013). Defamation by social media.

Ryan, G. (2004). The making of New Zealand cricket, 1832-1914. Psychology Press.