FIRST PUBLISHED IN
www.stuff.co.nz
As a cricketer, cricket purist and loyal fan of New Zealand sport I would like to exercise my right to have a general rant about this god forsaken match-fixing debacle and its impact on cricket in this nation.
The second largest sport on the planet will survive, and is surviving, through a generation of corrupt and impressionable numpties.
Cricket is a sport ingrained in the cultures where it is played. From the mud flats of the subcontinental deltas, the foothills of the Korakorum ranges, the red-bare outback to the beaches of Barbados, its purity transcends any corruption that the mighty dollar brings into the top levels of the game. It is strong. Cricket will go on.
In New Zealand the media squabble about allegations of a not-so-mysterious Player X.
Meanwhile one of the most talented and hard working outfits this nation has ever seen are spilling sweat and tears in pursuit of their goals. Working towards the next 12 months, a period that will define the careers of the individuals inside that unit. Let's support these guys rather than gossip over water coolers. Cricket is going on... talk about it, enjoy it!
Focusing media attention on players' past mistakes only feeds the negativity and ill feeling.
In the end, the players involved were desperate to make a quick buck rather than looking to their futures with strategic career-driven minds.
Why do we not spend more time looking at their counter parts, Stephen Fleming and Dion Nash, among many, and celebrate their success after hanging up the spikes?
All this mud-flinging surrounding our ex-national cricketers blights the image of the game. It should stop.
The World Cup is on its way and we need the New Zealand public to be in full force behind it. This starts from the media. This happens and cricket will go on.
