Cricket was once a gentleman's game, then Pakistan started playing

I am no fan of Pakistan, neither of their cricket nor their country. However, I do wish them well. They've always got a flair about themselves and seem to surprise people often. A world class leader like Imran Khan or a sensational pace bowling duo of Wasim and Waqar or a super hefty yet superb batsman like Inzamam. They definitely were a good addition to the small... no.. tiny world of international cricket.

But time and time again Pakistan have shot themselves in the foot. And instead of the making the world take notice of the positives, they've either made the world look at them with disgust or made themselves a laughing stock.

Here's a history of the numerous different occassions where Pakistan cricket has failed... Failed itself and definitely failed the game!!

1. Ball tampering
Things started in the 70s when Imran Khan and other fast bowling couleagues discoverd that an old cricket ball would reverse swing. And if the ball was very old with a torn seam, it would reverse swing even more. While the discovery was awesome, it also gave players a reason make the ball old. Thus started an unethical, ugly and unsportsman-like practice of tearing the seam so as to get reverse swing.

2. Baised umpiring
The 80s saw the dark side of the baised umpiring. On field umpires were always from the home team. And teams visiting Pakistan started realizing that the Pakistani umpires were always biased towards their players. While such things may have been happening in other countries too, never did things go so out of proportion as they did in Pakistan.

The best incident that showed this was the Shakoor Rana and Mike Gatting standoff. A frustrated Mike Gatting gave Shakoor Rana a mouthful and went and sat on the stairs just outside the boundry line (he didn't want to talk to anyone, not even his own teammates).

Other teams like Australia and India also complained of poor umpiring decisions.

3. Ball tampering
The late 80's and early 90's saw the resurgence of ball tampering in a different form. Bowlers like Wasim and Waqar were making batsman all around the world hop, skip and jump with their stupendous bowling. One of the weapons they'd discovered was that reverse swing could be achieved easily if the difference between shining side and non-shining side of the ball was large. Greater the difference, greater the swing. Thus started the ugly practise of applying vaseline (or something similar) to the ball so as to make it swing.

4. Match fixing
The late 90's and early 2000's was probably the darkest phase of cricket. Most countries found their players in the middle of the match fixing scandal. The BCCI decided to ban a few players. Australia had to reprimand Shane Warne and Mark Waugh. South Africa was probably most affected with the Hansie Cronje hearings. Sri Lanka had to enquire about Aravind De'Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga.

And how could Pakistan be behind... I don't even know how many enquiries PCB did and how many players were implicated. Almost everyone in the team seemed to involved somehow. Everyone from Salim Malik, Rashid Latif, Wasim Akram and Ata Ur-Rahman.

5. Spot Fixing
The 2000's saw a new form of fixing. "Spot fixing". Where players took money from bookies not to decide the fate of the entire match but to fix smaller things like no-balls, maiden overs, dropped catches, etc.

Allegations started coming up about Pakistani players playing in the English counties were taking money for spot fixing. While the police did some enquiries occasionally (and so did the PCB I think), nothing concrete came up. Players got away scott free.

But the biggest bombshell has come in the form of the sting operations by "News of the World".

Apart from this, there have been numerous instances when Pakistani players have been involved in unethical, unsportsman-like practices.

- Shahid Afridi scratching the surface of the pitch in England
- Shahid Afridi's infamous ball biting
- Mohammad Asif using banned drugs during IPL
- Sure, players have been heckled all over the world ... but Inzamam going into the crowd and hitting a spectator was uncalled for
- I haven't forgotten this.. Sourav Ganguly was caught by Moin Khan on the first bounce (after the ball recociated from the silly point fielder) during a test match (Chennai or Delhi, 1999)
- Afridi and Gambhir's infamous mid pitch tussle
- I don't think I've ever seen a Pakistani batsman walk :-)
- I don't think the Oval fiasco was well handled at all

What disgusts me most is that all this is done and yet there is no remorse or repentance. Its almost as if they can do whatever they want and they know they'll get away with it.
And why not, players retire out of frustration and are allowed to come back within a few days... "life bans" are handed out and then revoked within weeks... The ICC never seems to have any teeth...

The term "no balls" is extremely relevant in cricket these days ... players make money by bowling them ... and they keep doing it because ICC doesn't have them!!