Top players in world sports earn salaries that are staggeringly large. But, if various allegations that have recently been published are true, the earnings of top sportsmen, combined in many cases with huge payments from companies using the stars' images to advertise their products, have not been sufficient to overcome the temptation of "filthy lucre" that may be gained through match fixing.
Cricket is hardly known in Japan and North America, but it remains popular in Britain and Australia. It has become almost a cult in India, Pakistan and the islands of the West Indies, which used to be British colonies. Every year a series of test matches lasting up to four days between teams from cricket playing countries attract large crowds of fans at famous cricket grounds. This summer a team from Pakistan has been touring Britain and playing both test matches and 20/20 games, which are one day affairs and often more exciting. But the image of cricket that was of a gentlemanly game for true sportsmen has been seriously tarnished by allegations in the popular Sunday newspaper The News of the World.
The paper undertook a sting operation which involved a taped interview. This suggested that at least three members of the Pakistan team including the captain and the youngest star player were involved, if not in match fixing, at least in arranging for "no balls" to be bowled at specified points in the match. A "no ball" occurs when the bowler, for instance, fails to bowl from behind the bowling line. It seems that gamblers have been betting on the timing of no balls.