The Third Men – Bob Woolmer’s Murder
CRICKET’S dominance of the front pages continues as Bob Wooolmer’s murder occupies minds.
Was he killed by poison? Strangled? Was it suicide, a cry for help as he strove to understand the Duckworth-Lewis system?
While the matter makes the actual World Cup look like a sideshow – how innocent it was when privateer Flintoff was cricket’s shamfaced, shipfaced star – Michael Vaughan is talking to the Sun.
Vaughan, England’s captain when fit (not often), is asked to give his view on the subject of corruption in the game. Does it go on? Says Vaughan: “If I’m honest, yes, I think it does.”
“Vaughan: Cricket is corrupt,” announces the Sun’s headline. The source insides the Jamaican police says: “Information suggests rigging plans went awry when Ireland beat Pakistan. There is a suggestion that this sparked dark arguments and recriminations.”
Vaughan now speaks again. “I’ve never experienced it with any team or any players I’ve played with. I’ve never felt I’ve played against anyone who was doing it,” says he. “But my gut feeling is that there is still some kind of corruption in the game.
“I’ve never had any incidents or been involved in any conversations regarding fixing a game. I’ve never been approached and I hope I never will be.”
Not quite as the headline suggests, then. Cricket is corrupt as much as Michael Vaughan thinks it could be.
He goes on: “It’s not for me to talk about it because someone’s life has been lost and that’s what we should be looking at. Someone’s family is having to suffer.”
But isn’t this the very time to be talking about it?
Or are we waiting for the real debate to get underway when unfancied England win the tournament…
Picture: The Spine
Posted: 24th, March 2007 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
