Match Fixers must be exposed

Former Proteas captain Shaun Pollock wants to see all of those involved in match-fixing exposed.

On Wednesday, after Netwerk24 broke the story, Cricket South Africa (CSA) confirmed that former Proteas, Dolphins, Titans and Lions cricketer Gulam Bodi had been charged with “contriving to fix, or otherwise improperly influence aspects of the 2015 RAM SLAM T20 Challenge Series”.

Pollock labeled the extent of the latest match-fixing saga to rock cricket as “shocking” and said that it was a sad day for South Africa cricket.

“I think it is a shock … it’s a shock that it’s happening on a domestic level,” the 108-Test veteran told Sport24.

“There’s quite a few people involved, we don’t know the full extent of it yet, but it seems like there’s quite a few people involved.

“It is sad … sad that it’s reared its head here in South Africa (again). These kinds of things do tarnish the game, there’s no doubt about it.

“I’m glad they’ve managed to get their hand on it and they’re trying to sort the situation out.”

Pollock said that revealing who the offenders were publicly would help prevent other players from going down the same road.

“Ideally we want to try and eradicate it from the game as much as we can and obviously by catching offenders and making it public it’s going to go a long way to deter guys from getting involved,” he said.

“Until people are exposed it doesn’t really help us. I think it’s good that if there are people involved it gets exposed and we try and move forward from that.”

Pollock added that attempts to fix matches existed “everywhere”.

“It’s very prevalent in the world of cricket … people trying to make approaches and attempts,” he said.

“I think they’re (the authorities) are trying their best. The education is there, there are constantly people at games trying to work out … there’s intelligence passed on all the time.

“Hopefully we can get rid of it once and for all.”

Lloyd Burnard – Sport24