England v Pakistan Test Series ** Spoilers**

Blimey, top three batsmen of the series are Trott, Broad, and Prior. Aside from Trott it's not exactly a ringing endorsement of our top order!
 
Upset isn't quite the right word but I'm really disappointed about this story, not least because it involves the two players who have actually had a bit of heart and shown some guts during this game.

Also a real shame that Amir is such an exciting talent.

The one saving grace for me is that there's no sign of actual match fixing having taken place so I'd like to think the amazing stand we saw in this game won't be overly tarnished.
 
Who would want to play Pakistan now? This whole thing seems legit, and so the Pakistan cricket team is truly screwed for a couple of years.

I hope they get metaphorically lynched back home.

gam3r said:
I'm not surprised about the match fixing allegations. This stuff happens all the time, don't understand why people are shocked when something like this is released in the press. When these players from Asia have a chance to make big money(and remember, they probably don't get paid as much as the English cricketers - apart from the Indian cricketers, who still match fix anyway..), they will jump at the chance.

Match fixing happens all the time.
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Doesn't mean we can't be outraged.
 
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ghost101 said:
Who would want to play Pakistan now? This whole thing seems legit, and so the Pakistan cricket team is truly screwed for a couple of years.

I hope they get metaphorically lynched back home.
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I wouldn’t want to play them again. You can’t respect a team without trust. This needs to be sorted out a.s.a.p. I’m afraid that suspensions aren’t going to be good enough and life bans are in order for anyone involved in this even if it means the end of a promising career. A line has to be drawn somewhere and the time is now. Hopefully the ICC will do the right thing.
 
All over now, 147 all out. It's such a shame that the presentations are going to be behind closed doors.
 
Quite surprised about these allegations but not surprised which paper broke the news. They're complete and utter scum and have a history of breaking potentially damaging stories at the worst possible times.
 
So Pakistan 147 all out (36.5 overs):

Farhat c Cook b Broad 5
Hameed lbw b Anderson 3
Butt lbw b Swann 21
Mohammad Yousuf c Trott b Finn 10
Azhar b Swann 12
U Akmal not out 79
K Akmal c Prior b Anderson 1
Amir b Swann 0
Riaz c Pietersen b Swann 0
Ajmal run out 8
Asif c Collingwood b Swann 1
Extras 7

Swann 5-62.

England beat Pakistan by an innings and 225 runs and win the series 3-1.

Nothing should detract from Jonathan Trott’s innings of 184 and Stuart Broad’s 169 and their world record 8th wicket stand of 332. Well done. :)
 
Amir, mos for PAK. Oh dear.

Correction: There is an award ceremony of sorts, but only in the long room. Only Amir there to represent PAK. How embarrassing.
 
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Of course he's the PAK man of the series but it's still highly embarrassing to be put under the spotlight as the sole representative of the country that you have allegedly disgraced. Nowhere to hide.
 
Right, just come back in, what on earth is all this match-fixing malarky? Can someone summarise for me please?
 
News of the World have done their standard undercover cop thing, and revealed that Amir and Asif were payed to bowl no-balls at certain times, allowing others to bet on them. From what's come out at the moment (and nothing has really been confirmed), it is Amir, Asif, Butt, and potentially a couple of others involved as well, but there has been no word as yet that any match fixing has gone on, "only" spot-fixing.
 
This is absolutely mad stuff. What terrible timing from that paper. I am gutted for Broad really. Whether anything is proved or not it just takes such a shine off it.

I would be gutted if Amir got banned - what an amazing talent and at such a young age he is probably easily led astray.

Will be interesting to see what happens but a very dark day for Test cricket once again.
 
This doesn't really suprise me tbh. The Pakistan players get paid peanuts so when an opportunity like this comes up... do a few no balls for ridiculous amounts of money, I can see almost any of the Pakistan team taking it, sending the money back home and being content they at least made something from their career, because remember they might be dropped from the team tomorrow.

Most of the team especially the younger players, probably have lots of family back home who are not all that well off. Cricket doesn't matter as much in comparison to them, it's a massive shame because I believe Pakistan has always produced the worlds most talented seam bowlers, many of whom will probably never be used.

Lifetime bans need to be dished out in order to drill it into the Pakistani player mentality that when you go representing your country, this is unacceptable.

ringo747 said:
I would be gutted if Amir got banned - what an amazing talent and at such a young age he is probably easily led astray.
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Reminds me of the whole Asif - drugs incident, but I agree being so young and naive he will no doubt have been egged on by the others involved and assured it's 'nothing'.
 
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Mad old tory said:
The one saving grace for me is that there's no sign of actual match fixing having taken place so I'd like to think the amazing stand we saw in this game won't be overly tarnished.
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It's no saving grace at all - it's just a slippery slope and if they hadn't been caught now then who knows what next. The saving grace is that Broad and Trott were oblivious to it all and played their game the way they should, and thus should get the plaudits they deserve.

simulatorman said:
A line has to be drawn somewhere and the time is now. Hopefully the ICC will do the right thing.
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I hope so, but why do these things keep happening? The time to sort this out was when Hansie Cronje was caught, but they keep coming back time and time again and one wonders if the ICC have any teeth at all (it wasn't them that banned Cronje either).

gam3r said:
I'm not surprised about the match fixing allegations. This stuff happens all the time,
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Maybe so, but that doesn't make it in any way acceptable.

gam3r said:
When these players from Asia have a chance to make big money(and remember, they probably don't get paid as much as the English cricketers
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They get paid an utter pittance apparently, so yes, yielding to the temptation is certainly understandable, but still wrong.

Pigeon_Killer said:
Quite surprised about these allegations but not surprised which paper broke the news. They're complete and utter scum and have a history of breaking potentially damaging stories at the worst possible times.
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Totally agree. Last day of the World Snooker, last day of the last test match. See a pattern here? They might get some comeuppance over the former though - seems they published some porkies there.

I've only been watching sporadically so didn't get the news until the end. Perhaps as well. Sky replayed the no balls in question and two of them were so far over the line that the Umpires would have been sent to Specsavers had they missed them.
 
I can't blame the NOTW too much, at least this is an example of proper investigative journalism rather than trawling through the sex life of some Z-list celebrity. And don't forget that they only publish on Sundays and the impact of publishing next week would be far far less.

Strange too be defending a scummy tabloid tag but sometimes they do actually provide a useful service.

Also, whether it was matchmatch-fixing or spot-betting, it remains that it appears at number of Pakistan players did not have their minds fully on the game, and when a huge part of bowling/fielding is keeping the pressure cranked up, a stupid no-ball can change the outcome of an over.

Hopefully there'll be a full investigation, I'm wondering if the police and CPS get involved you could feasibly end up with players in jail here
 
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