Move over gentlemen, its a different game

There have been outbreaks of crowd trouble — once the preserve of football — and allegations of match-fixing. In many countries, politicians and judges rather than players have claimed headlines.

For South Africa, the tournament favourites and indisputably the best One-day side in the world over the past two seasons, the issue has been one of race.

The side, despite the blooding of a handful of black and coloured players, remains too white and politically-incorrect for some post-apartheid leaders.

Coach Bob Woolmer, however, has resisted pressure for positive discrimination and quota cricket’, arguing that team selection should be based on ability alone.

His team — deprived of one coloured player because of an untimely criminal conviction and anotherthrough a dramatic loss of form — will field just one player, Herschelle Gibbs, as a hint of the country’s cultural diversity.

South African sports minister Steve Tshwete has responded by announcing this is a team he cannot support.

Perhaps the most cancerous scandal to hit the sport in recent seasons, however, has been that of alleged rigged results. The affair dates back to 1994, when three Australian players claimed they were approached by Pakistani batsman Salim Malik to lose a Test match.

Since then, players within both the Pakistan and Indian squads have fuelled the fire, accusing team-mates of deliberately losing minor One-day games in return for bribes from illegal bookmakers.

Several leading players in Pakistan, where the scandal has raged loudest and longest, are still being investigated, with suggestions the findings will be delayed so as not to coincide with the World Cup.

Pakistan, perhaps the most naturally gifted team in the tournament, were only last month accused by one of theirformer captains of “throwing” a game against England in April.

To blur the issue even further, Shane Warne, one of the Australians who first pointed the finger at Malik, admitted last year that he himself accepted a cash gift from a Indian bookmaker who then asked for information on pitch and weather conditions.

Warne admits he was naive but refutes charges of dishonesty. As does Malik.

The crowd trouble began in Calcutta — where 70,000 spectators were cleared from Eden Gardens by baton-wielding police after missiles were thrown onto the pitch during a Test between India and Pakistan in February — and later infected the West Indies.

There, Australian captain Steve Waugh said he feared for his life after a pitch invasion at Georgetown was followed by bottle-throwing incidents which forced the teams off the pitch at Bridgetown.

In Sri Lanka, meanwhile, the reigning champions’ World Cup participation was threatened after a power struggle led to the national cricket board being suspended.

OnFriday, March 14, England take on Sri Lanka in the tournament opener. Time will tell whether the traditional sportsman’s phrase “It’s not cricket” deserves a future.