This is part two of an extract from Hell for Leather – The World of a Sporting Journalist, by Phil Wilkins.
By Phil Wilkins
This is part two of an extract from Phil Wilkins Hell for Leather – The World of a Sporting Journalist – you can read part one here.
Only heavy breathing confirmed the presumed Test captain was on the line. Although I sensed my listener was Salim Malik from his long, engrossed silence, enquiries as to whether he would respond to questioning, agree to an interview, or even so much as deny the accusations, were ignored. Ultimately, the phone went dead.
Adding to the frustration, long after publication of the story, I learned a third Australian cricketer had been approached in Pakistan; match-winning batsman Mark Waugh. The story emerged in print without Waugh being dragged into the morass, but his thoughts would have been welcome. Anyone’s quotes would have been welcome.
Mark Waugh and Mark Taylor appear to give evidence into alleged matchfixing, in 1998. Credit: AP
Betting on cricket matches in Australia is a relatively minor amusement. For players it is an illegal practice, much as jockeys gambling on horse racing is forbidden. On the Indian subcontinent and within the Arab Emirates, however, it is widespread practice among the vast Indian community, all rabid cricket lovers. Vast sums of money are invested on games and players’ performances.
It was only when Dennis Lillee and Rodney Marsh learned of the ludicrously lavish odds of 500/1 on offer about an England Test win against Australia in a Ladbrokes’ betting tent at Leeds in 1981 that an amusing temptation flared into a nation-wide controversy.
Former Pakistani cricketer Salim Malik. Credit: AP
When the Australian team’s coach driver invested 15 pounds on behalf of Lillee and Marsh that Australia would lose the game and the pair collected, the Test partnership’s small triumph became a scandal. Only then did gambling on cricket matches come to national attention. From a turning point in the Test, a laughing matter and to the patriotic dismay of Lillee and Marsh, England won by 18 runs when an Australian victory appeared to be destined within four days.
Riding high after John Dyson’s maiden Test century and the formidable pace bowling of Lillee, Terry Alderman and Geoff Lawson, England followed on 227 runs behind, dancing on death’s doorstep at 7-135 in their second innings. Hotel bookings cancelled for the night, all anticipating England’s swift demise, not least Ladbrokes’ betting supervisor, who else but the indomitable Ian Botham, deposed as England captain for Mike Brearley for that very Test, emerged to pulverise an unbeaten 149. Needing just 130 runs to take a two-nil series lead, Australia were shattered by Bob Willis’ speed bowling downwind. He claimed 8-43 from 15.1 overs on a day of annihilation, Australia dismissed for 111. Patriots to their boot studs, Lillee and Marsh tasted the acid of Test defeat, only for the dubious consolation of their coach driver collecting them their Ladbrokes’ money.
Operated by illegal bookmakers, the turnover of money invested on cricket matches on the Indian subcontinent is enormous; it’s not so much a lucrative business as a trillion-rupee industry. In theory, the Muslims of Pakistan do not gamble, just as they look you in the eye with a smile and maintain they do not consume alcohol and then invite you inside for a drink. They may not have the same gambling passion of their Indian Hindu neighbours, but invariably they find ways and means to do so, much like Australians who break their year-round vow of abstinence and temperance with a bet on Melbourne Cup Day.
Information about team selection, player profiles, weather and pitch conditions seem irrelevant to most Australian cricket followers, knowledge commonplace enough to be unimportant. Yet, it is precious material for Indian bookmakers, its accumulation beneficial in establishing betting odds. Such is the massive financial turnover on the subcontinent that it is a foolish gambler who fails to honour his commitments to his friendly, corner shop Mumbai bookmaker or faceless accountant in Dubai. Tardy repayment or an inability to make settlements instigates serious repercussions for the guilty punter. It can lead to disastrous consequences for the debtor, retribution swift.
What difference does it make if a stray body is found clogging up a fetid city gutter in a land of countless millions, a man unable to refund money owed a bookmaker, his debt having accumulated on too many occasions? It soon became apparent that this disturbing image and an apprehension for personal safety was behind witness’ reluctance to provide quotations and it made comments difficult to obtain after news broke of the bribery offer in 1994-95, a three-Test series won by Pakistan, one-nil.
Understandably, Salim Malik was off-limits to the Australian media when Pakistan despatched their cricket team to Australia in 1995-96. Though still a member of the Test side, he was gagged from speaking to the scurrilous press. In the furore of the attempted bribery, Wasim Akram, the nation’s new champion fast bowler became captain with Malik still an active, century-scoring contributor. But the newspaper story had its desired effect, lifting the lid on gambling malpractices suspected of taking place among players in first-class and international cricket and especially in limited-over games, up the playing ladder and around to the back door of players’ dressing rooms, not necessarily only in India and Pakistan.
Journalist Phil Wilkins in 1998.Credit: Fairfax photographic
The wheels of justice were a long time in turning, but painstaking enquiries in Pakistan eventually led to the 103-Test veteran Malik becoming the first Pakistani cricketer to be suspended from the game for match-fixing. In the year 2000, a local court in Lahore recommended he be banned for life. Eight years later in 2008, another Pakistani court quashed the life sentence. When in the same year Malik was appointed head coach of Pakistan’s National Cricket Academy, the country’s former outstanding Test wicketkeeper, Rashid Latif, resigned from his position as national wicketkeeping coach, registering his dismay.
This is part two of an extract from Phil Wilkins Hell for Leather – The World of a Sporting Journalist published in 2023 by Fair Play Publishing. Available at all good bookstores and online.
This is part two of the extract – you can read part one of our two-part extract here.
