10 January 1999
Spirit of Bradman more than a match for dark forces
By Tony Lewis
I AM sitting in my room in Sydney thinking about Indian
bookmakers spinning webs around Test cricketers like Salim Malik,
Shane Warne and Mark Waugh, wondering how many more schoolboy
heroes will be implicated and whether their mere apologies will
be enough to clean their slates. So often we get used to anything
in the end.
Bribery and back-handers have long been part of India's business
lore, and although betting is illegal there, punting on cricket
is wild and bookmakers thrive. There are few professional players
or commentators on cricket who have not been asked to help Asian
punters to get their forecasts right.
How guilty were Warne and Waugh? How guilty Malik? You can argue
that match-throwing is nothing new and the proliferation of
one-day international bashes are almost designed for the
universal punter. You may know that cricket was once a game made
for betting. That is why there are two innings - the losing
gambler had a chance to get his money back the second time round.
Cricket, we are frequently reminded, faithfully reflects the
society in which we live. In 1999, there is a mass of money
swirling around cricket in the areas of commercial and
broadcasting rights, sponsorship and in betting. We look to
administrators to keep cricket sporting and the International
Cricket Council, who meet in New Zealand this weekend, have their
chance to impose sanctions on those who have slipped a hand into
the bookie's satchel. They should be discussing life bans.
We also need the example of individuals. John Reid, the former
New Zealand captain, imposed a suspended fine on Glenn McGrath
for sledging. It has worked so far. That Pakistan are bravely
determined to clear out all betting villainy is much to do with
the resolve of Chief Executive Majid Khan, a most honourable and
sporting cricketer. I would not care to be the bookie who offered
Majid a billion dollars for a word on the weather in Lahore.
In all this muck and nettles, a beautiful flower. Yesterday, I
went on a pilgrimage. Two hours by car on the Canberra road to
the green, wooded freshness of small-town Bowral. White-on-brown
signalled me to the Bowral Oval, the Bradman Museum and the home
to which Don Bradman's parents moved when he was a child of two.
The visit was like going back to the spring of one's own cricket,
to playing with bat and ball on any bit of ground from dawn to
dusk. MCC put a team out to play a Bradman Museum XI and no
artist could have dreamed up a more idyllic scene of an oval
surrounded by quiet roads and low houses, trees and white
pickets, spectators on wooden benches, a neat pavilion and, most
importantly, an excellent pitch with good pace and bounce.
Behind the pavilion stands the Bradman Museum, opened in 1996.
One of the locals floated modestly around the pavilion - Ian
Craig, former Australian captain. Don Bradman, the small boy,
playing the golf ball with his cricket stump at the water tank in
the small walled area outside his back door in Bowral is an image
which has stayed with many lovers of the game.
That tiny area has been replicated in the museum and alongside it
is a black and white video of a modern youngster playing the same
repetitious game.
Inspiring and revealing, but I left Bowral with words in mind,
not picture images. Recognise the current fine examples set by
individuals like Majid Khan and Reid but see also the creed which
is written into cricket's laws.
The sporting code is still implicit and when you make your own
pilgrimage to Bowral, which I truly recommend, you too may leave
with the words of Sir Donald Bradman travelling in your mind.
They are inscribed in glass at the museum entrance:
"Without doubt the laws of cricket and the conduct of the game
are a great example to the world. We should all be proud of this
heritage which I trust may forever stand as a beacon light
guiding man's footsteps to happy and peaceful days."
Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)