0 Lou Vincent banned by Bangladesh

Former New Zealand international cricketer Lou Vincent has received his first suspension for match-fixing; Cricinfo reports:

Former Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful has been banned for eight years (three years suspended) by the BPL anti-corruption tribunal for his involvement in match and spot-fixing in the 2013 Bangladesh Premier League.

Dhaka Gladiators' managing director Shihab Chowdhury has been banned for ten years (three years suspended) for fixing, former New Zealand batsman Lou Vincent is out for three years, and Sri Lanka batsman Kaushal Lokuarachchi gets an 18-month ban for failing to report an approach. In February, Vincent had admitted to not reporting a bookie's approach. 

As the story notes, Vincent was one of four people charged. Here's more about his specific offences:

Chowdhury has been charged on article 6.2 and 6.5, which means he cannot participate in any cricketing activities. He also has been fined Tk 20 lakh, to be paid to the BCB. He has been found guilty of being party to fixing the Chittagong match held on February 2, 2013. This decision was first announced on February 26 this year, when the tribunal released the short verdict.

Vincent too was charged under the same articles as Chowdhury, while Lokuarachchi was charged under article 2.4.2. "The tribunal imposes ineligibility for 18 months on Kaushal Lokuarachchi," Khademul said. "There was one charge against him, and that is his failure to report a corrupted approach. Someone had asked him if he wants to fix match, and he didn't report it. He has been found guilty under article 2.4.2 of the BCB's code.

"Lou Vincent, the New Zealand cricketer, has been punished with a three-year ban. He has been found guilty under article 6.2 and 6.5," 

This suspension of course is a mere prelude to the main events to follow. Lou Vincent has also been charged by the England Cricket Board for match-fixing in English county matches, and Cricket Australia is planning charges against him. The ICC is still investigating other allegations.

It is highly likely that Lou Vincent will ultimately be banned for life for match-fixing. The only redeeming feature for him is that he has been open with cricket authorities about his participation, although Chris Cairns may not necessarily see that as a redeeming feature!

But if a life ban ensues, Vincent will have no one to blame but himself. There is no place in cricket for corruption and cheating.

0 A feast of sport

We've got quite a lot happening over the next few weeks. So SWMBO suggested a couple of weeks ago that she would plan a work trip around a weekend with her family, and when we checked the sporting schedules, we encouraged her heartily!

That's because there's a veritable feast of sport this weekend, and the Sky remote will be ours and ours alone! It's not like we're obsessed or anything, but you know what it's like.

For many, the FIFA World Cup is always a highlight. All the talk and all the speculation is over, and Sepp Blatter will be glad the focus is about to go off his leadership of FIFA and onto the Beautiful Game itself. Blatter has made comments about needing a fifth term as FIFA president to "finish my mission", and if his mission is to make sure that FIFA is seen as corrupt, he's almost there!

But the World Cup itself is about to kick off. The Opening Ceremony is underway, and shortly, Brazil and Croatia will play the opening match. It should be a feast of football over the next month.

Pinehurst No. 2 is a golf course steeped in tradition. It's 15 years since Payne Stewart won his second US Open (and his third major) at Pinehurst. A few short months later, Stewart died in a bizarre plane accident. And how can we forget the last Pinehurst winner, Michael Campbell? 

The US Open is underway, and Pinehurst No. 2 with its signature turtle-back greens is already providing a fantastic test of golf for the world's best players, with only 23 players under par at the moment, and the leaders at only two-under. Steven Alker has made a difficult start, and is three-over after six holes, but he is in good company. You can follow the live scores right here.

If that's not enough, there's the normal weekend diet of NRL, the second test between England and New Zealand, the semi-finals of the IRB U20 tournament with New Zealand out for revenge against a giant South African side and the test match between England and Sri Lanka at Lord's in London.

It's almost too much of a good thing. But with the remote in our palm, and with the magic of MySky, we'll manage to watch a good selection of sport this weekend. What's not to like about that?

0 Citizen Kim - yeah right

According to the Herald, Kim Dotcom will  be standing for Parliament in 2017; check the headline out:

Now whether John Weekes is a real Herald reporter or not, or whether he's ghost-writing for David Fisher, we reckon that this is a red herring story to end all red herring puff pieces.

The reason that Dotcom can't stand for Parliament this year is that he is not a New Zealand citizen. We've come to the conclusion that the Immigration New Zealand staff who bowed to pressure from Dotcom's immigration consultants made a serious mistake, and Dotcom should never have been granted New Zealand residence.

Judge Holden, Edward the Confessor, Rex or whatever he calls himself today will try to tell you that Jonathan Coleman approved Dotcom's residence. He didn't; the decision was made by senior INZ staff, after threats from Dotcom's agent that he would take his investment, his bat and his ball and sulk off somewhere else if residence wasn't granted by a certain date. In hindsight, INZ should have told Dotcom to take his money and bugger off.

Soon after residence was granted, Dotcom was convicted of insider trading offences in Hong Kong. That alone leaves him as highly likely to be ineligible for citizenship. But then there's the small matter of charges against him in the USA.

All things being equal, by 2017 the US Department of Justice will have secured Dotcom's extradition to the US to face serious criminal charges including racketeering and money-laundering, not to mention criminal copyright violations. If he is convicted of these charges, he will be facing serious jail time, and no one will be bringing him a special mattress.

Of course a change of government might see Dotcom escape extradition to the USA, but that would be a very contentious political decision, underpinned by a strong whiff of corruption. For a Labour/GIMP Justice Minister to override a court decision in such an overtly political case (Dotcom being the founder, funder and visionary of the Internet Party) would be unprecedented in our memory, which goes back to the Holyoake era.

If Kim Dotcom is extradited, the Internet Party will cease to function; it's as simple as that. The party cannot exist without the Large German Gentleman's money. Its "Candidate Idol" yesterday was farcical, and the sight of hip-hop artist King Kapisi competing for a salaried position was a real irony, given Megaupload's alleged serial ripping off of the music industry, and the legal action that leading recording labels are taking against Dotcom.

If there is a change of government in September, if Kim Dotcom becomes a New Zealand citizen and if he stands for Parliament in 2017, New Zealand will have seen a genuine Cash for Citizenship scandal involving corruption at the highest levels. Is that acceptable?

0 First Gower, now Garner

We blogged last night about Patrick Gower's rant about the MegaMana rort.

If you think that was bad, wait until you see what Duncan Garner thinks; Gower's piece was but an entree. In his op-ed this afternoon he has absolutely ripped in to Dotcom, Harawira et al. Under the headline Party for sale - Internet-Mana is a sham and a rort Garner opines:

This Internet-Mana party alliance is a sham and a rort, but MMP allows for it - which is the worst bit. 
I’ve seen nothing like it in the history of NZ politics. It is far less transparent than the dodgy electorate seat deals National has done over the years. New Zealanders have every right to be outraged.

This is about an already convicted criminal - a rich internet tycoon wanted on piracy charges, no less – on the run from the United States and sheltering in New Zealand. He’s a had a run in with the NZ Government and the US authorities, so he’s doing all he can to buy his way out of trouble.
It now includes pulling out his cheque-book and paying for a political party and buying people off – so he can keep his sorry backside out of the clink.
It’s as simple as that: he’s paying big money so he doesn’t turn into some sort of dribbling mess behind bars – some reports suggest he’s pumped $4m into setting up this party. So how much is he paying his people?
I asked new leader Laila Harré yesterday, she said she wasn’t sure yet. But money between the two will change hands at some stands, she’s clear on that.
She will be paid for this role. Is this the New Zealand way? I would argue no way. It’s grubby isn’t it? You only get paid once you get elected don’t you?
I have had a bit to do with Harré over the years. She has been a tireless and effective campaigner for those on the left. However, her former allies think she has sold out; Jim Anderton is far from impressed.
Harré is ambitious. Before all this she had integrity and credibility, but many of us are questioning that now. What does she really have in common with Kim Dotcom? Bugger all. He’s found she has a price after all.

Duncan Garner absolutely nails all the key issues in this sordid rort. Kim Dotcom clearly thinks he can buy people off. New Zealand needs to send him a clear message that that's not how we do things here.

Every man, they say, has his price. We know now that Hone Harawira will dispense with democracy for half a million big ones. We don't know what Laila Harre's price is, but we're guessing it's a darned sight more than the base salary for a back-bench MP.

Garner closes, and rolls out the dreaded "C" word:

Most of all this deal lacks transparency; she will, and should be, hounded by the press about how much she is personally being paid by Kim Dotcom to be the leader. Plus, what sort of deal has been done on Kim Dotcom’s possible extradition?
If there is a change of Government, and a future Minister overturns any extradition, isn’t that corruption? Wouldn’t he have bought his way out of an American jail?
New Zealanders have every right to feel dirty over this deal. It brings our political process into disrepute. Dotcom has contempt for our system, our democracy and our country. To him, everything is for sale and everyone has their price.
I don’t see it lasting. This will, and should, end in tears.

Garner is right; this stinks, far worse than the snapper that got David Shearer's number. The stench of corruption hovers over this dirty, dirty deal. 

And it is especially ironic to consider Hone Harawira's contribution to the Third Reading debate on the Electoral Finance Bill in December 2007, when speaking as a Maori Party MP he said:

HONE HARAWIRA: I want to make the point that if I wish to speak in Māori at any time, I will do so.

We are the Māori Party, with not a bean to our name, but we still turned down $250,000 rather than compromise our independence, and for the same reasons we are opposed to this bill. We are the Māori Party, and we were angry with both the divisive “Iwi/Kiwi” campaign run by National and the nasty “a vote for the Māori Party is a vote for National” campaign run by Labour, because we did not have the wherewithal to counteract either. Yet still we are opposed to this bill. We are the Māori Party, with not a bean to our name, but we stand free in this House, answerable to no one but our own people, uncompromised by shady deals with either of the major parties, and we are proud to say that we are opposed to this electoral finance legislation.

We know Harawira's price now; a price Kim Dotcom willingly paid, with his tainted money. We hope he can live with himself.

0 More on cricket's cancer

The allegations of involvement of former New Zealand players in match-fixing continue to swirl around the cricketing world. And on face value, the leaked testimony of Lou Vincent's former wife is damaging, on all sorts of levels; Stuff reports:

Chris Cairns continues to protest his innocence amid more evidence against him being disclosed, this time from Lou Vincent's ex-wife, alleging he was a cricket match-fixing ringleader.
Cairns' name was publicly linked with sworn evidence to International Cricket Council investigators for the first time today, as the former New Zealand allrounder issued a second statement in a 12-hour period: ''I totally reject the allegations against me and I will prove this.''
The latest leaked evidence is a sworn 10-page document from Elly Riley, Vincent's ex-wife, that she provided to anti-corruption (ACSU) investigators last October. It follows leaks in the past week of former test opener Vincent's explosive 42-page testimony, and New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum's signed three-page statement, both of which are understood to name Cairns as a fixing ringleader.
Riley's evidence, reported by One News tonight, was that the fixing began at the Indian Cricket League in 2008, and that Vincent told her: ''Chris was going to pay him US$50,000 (NZ$58,000) a game for the fixing.''
Vincent was soon confronted by a stranger with a suitcase full of money, but two weeks later things went awry, Riley said in her evidence.
''I got a phone call from Lou and he was crying, saying he'd just lost Chris Cairns US$250,000 or something like that because he got things wrong.''
Riley alleged the fixing continued in English county cricket, and the more players that were involved, the more money Cairns would receive.
She confronted Cairns during a night out in Manchester in 2008. He told her they were safe, everyone did it (fixing) and no one would get caught.
''I said that you're involving so many players - you're involving the whole team and by doing that you're getting greedy. I just can't see how information on the fixing is not going to leak out to others and you're not going to get caught,'' Riley said in evidence.
''Chris said that I was right, but told me not to worry as he had it all under control. Chris just sort of laughed it off.'' 

Once again we reiterate what we said yesterday. These are allegations only, and Chris Cairns must still be considered innocent until he has been proven otherwise.

But the allegations are hugely damaging to the integrity of the sport of cricket; once regarded as the most noble of all ball sports. It has become clear that match-fixing is not just the preserve of players from India and Pakistan, with Lou Vincent having admitted his involvement, and an English county player having given a sworn testimony against Chris Cairns. How deep does the rot go?

Match-fixing and spot-fixing are a cancer on cricket. Radical treatment is required if the patient is ever to have a chance at some sort of normality, but the prognosis for cricket is extremely guarded at the moment.

0 Cairns: If I'm Player X, McCullum's lying

The murky world of cricket match-fixing got murkier overnight. Chris Cairns has put out what Stuff describes as an "explosive" statement suggesting that if he is the mysterious Player X, NZ captain Brendon McCullum has been lying; check this out:

Chris Cairns has emerged swinging, saying if he is 'Player X' then match-fixing claims attributed to New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum are "a complete lie".
Cairns released an explosive statement to Fairfax Media tonight in response to an interview given by McCullum to the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption and security unit (ACSU), which was leaked to the Daily Mail. McCullum told investigators that a star international player had twice approached him in 2008 to request he fix matches, and said he could earn over $200,000 per match. McCullum said he rejected the offer.
Cairns maintained his innocence and insisted "dark forces" were at play.
"I am aware that former cricketer Lou Vincent and current New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum have made a range of allegations against a cricketer dubbed Player X," Cairns' statement said.
"It is well known that the ICC/ACSU has been investigating allegations of corruption and my name has been linked by others to these allegations. I am being asked whether I am Player X.
"Based on the limited information I have received during this investigation, I believe it is being alleged that I am that player. These allegations against me are a complete lie." 

We don't know who to believe any more. Cairns obviously thought McCullum's accusations in his ACSU interview were so specific they could only have referred to him. New Zealand Cricket is aware of the identity of Player X, but will not name him, for obvious reasons. 

The story is not going to go away. If, and we stress the word "if" any current or former New Zealand player is found to have participated in match-fixing or spot-fixing, they must, Lou Vincent included, be banished from cricket permanently.

As we have mentioned in the past, cricket is our first and most enduring sporting love. Our first memory of live first class cricket is watching a young Glenn Turner grind out three runs in a two-hour session against Central Districts at Cook's Gardens in Wanganui 50 years ago. These days, Turner would be accused of spot-fixing!

We played our first competitive cricket match in 1966. In the years since we have been a player, administrator, umpire and spectator. We continue to love test cricket in particular. but the abbreviated format of cricket, especially T20, is losing its allure. That is especially sad with the creme of the world's cricket talent set to grace New Zealand early next year for the ICC World Cup.

Do we have confidence in the ICC to get to the bottom of all this, and stamp out match-fixing and spot-fixing? In a word, no. It is time that these allegations were investigated by an organisation completely distanced from cricket. This is organised crime on a massive scale, given some of the numbers bandied around.

This is fast heading towards cricket's darkest hour. As lifelong cricket tragics, we despise what is going on in the sport. The game we love will never be quite the same again.