The game of cricket is yet again in the limelight for the wrong reasons. On Monday, private news channel unveiled a sting operation, which was conducted in July and August, which seems to reveal that umpires, who are supposed to protect the laws of the game, put themselves up for sale.
The channel’s sting allegedly caught six umpires — Nadeem Ghauri and Anees Siddiqui of Pakistan, Nadir Shah of Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka’s Gamini Dissanayake, Maurice Winston and Sagara Gallage — on camera ‘agreeing’ to give decisions on demand.
What the umpires of three countries have done is unpardonable. Cricket was the one institution held in reverence for its values of fair play and high standards. It is a dark moment for the game of cricket. The timing of the latest scandal has not done cricket any good. The game may very well lose its sheen with incidents like these.
The damage done to cricket is immense. Now is the time to change the game forever. The only way forward is the imposition of a life ban on the umpires found guilty. The ICC should adopt tough measures to prevent such incidents in future. — Mir Gazanfar Ali Zaki, Jeddah
Ban the umpires
