Foul play: Cricket match-fixing in Pakistan

Last Modified: 31 Mar 2007
By: Kylie Morris

Match-fixing in Pakistan and India is a deep-rooted part of cricket, as Channel 4 News' Asia correspondent Kylie Morris reports.

Three Metropolitan Police detectives and a forensics officer will now fly to Jamaica to review the investigation into the death of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer.

There has been speculation Mr Woolmer's death may be linked to match fixing - a claim former Pakistani captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has strongly denied.

Meanwhile the Pakistan Cricket Board has outlined a new system of performance related contracts to try and over come matchfixing.

It's a scene played out across the sub continent every afternoon.

An after school cricket game - with a home made wicket - and a bumpy pitch.

But Pakistan is not only addicted to the sport - it's addicted to the billion pound illegal betting industry it supports. A cricket gambler from Karachi tells me: "There's no excitement for us, we just bet for money. We are addicted to gambling, it's in our blood. We are addicted to gambling. We bet on every ball, on every over. It's not for excitement, it's for money."

There's no shortage of bookies to relieve punters of their rupees.

In Karachi, a group of men refused to take our camera to their safe house.

But they showed us how they worked - with a phalanx of constantly changing untraceable mobile phones. The help of a so-called penciller is used to record the bets laid, and critically, there is a hotline to India, to discover the odds.

All the rates are decided through India. From the beginning to the end of the match, our lines are open to there.

Ball by ball, run by run, we monitor how the rates change. It's a rare example of cooperation between the two feuding neighbours.

We are addicted to gambling. 'We bet on every ball, on every over. It's not for excitement, it's for money'
A gambler in Pakistan

High turnover

When a punter calls his bookie in Karachi, he can lay a bet on just about anything. The likelihood a six will be struck in an over, the number of runs scored - the run rate, when a wicket will fall, whether a game will be lost or won.

As those bets are laid, the odds keep changing. Big bookmakers in India set the rates, and money is lost or won in Pakistan on their say so.

Our bookie tells us he's small fry - and only turns over £100,000 every world cup game. The biggest he says handle as much as £800,000 pounds a match.

So imagine the profit to be made, when you know what's going to happen. From the district level up, bookmakers and their gangster cronies seek to fix results to guarantee profits.

They approach players - and can offer money well beyond what they might ever expect to earn, with a clean career.

At Pakistan's national cricket academy - Bob Woolmer's former home in Lahore - they're working to persuade players that match fixing doesn't pay.

But his friend - former test bowler Aqib Javed - admits it's difficult to fight.

He said: "How can you control this? if somebody calls me and says tomorrow don't play 100% - underplay, try to lose this game and you'll get this amount, it's only communication.. it's really difficult to find out ."

Fine words, but is there action to match?

The high court judge who headed Pakistan's first judicial inquiry into match fixing says not.

Watching the World Cup has proven to him that crime has overtaken the game.

Retired High Court Judge, Lahore, Justice Malik Mohammed Qayyum said: "If Pakistan loses to Australia, then no one is bothered. If it loses to Ireland or even the West Indies without a fight, one feels disgusted."

For Justice Qayyum, the murder of Bob Woolmer is most likely linked to the dark side of cricket. He says his first thought was that it was most likely connected to match fixing.

If not this then what else? Not a man belonging to a gang. Not a violent man. Not ever abusive. If not this - then what possible. And nothing is done without a reason.

After the debacle in the Caribbean - the Pakistan team is taking a break but Pakistani gamblers are still in play.

Bookies say south asian punters have already spent £70m on the World Cup - and they'll spend nearly double that for a final featuring the favourites, Australia.

While the phones run hot, the most cricket fans can hope is that the best team actually wins.