Several weeks ago, I was pleased to blog about Danish Kaneria's laudable achievement of 1000 first-class wickets. While aware of his name being in the frame of the Essex spot-fixing allegations, there seemed to be little concrete evidence that the Pakistan leg-spinner was materially involved. Following the trial of Mervyn Westfield and his subsequent four-month jail sentence, it has emerged that Kaneria may have been more than just an unfortunate casualty, caught up on the outer stands of the web of deceit.
What has made him seem untrustworthy was his insistence that he had been cleared not only by Essex police of involvement in the Westfield case (true) but also that he had clearance certificates to play from the ICC, PCB and ECB. Not so, say the three cricketing authorities. Kaneria has indeed been playing domestic cricket in Pakistan but the PCB has asserted that his clearance situation is pending an appearance before an integrity committee. This blatant contradiction of what seems to be a fact does not put the player's integrity in a very healthy light.
Kaneria was named in court as the go-between for the deal with Westfield and a bookmaker. He was also accused of showing off to teammates how he could engineer lucrative deals without the need to fix matches and even show them a bag full of notes. Not a News of the World journo in sight! Of course, it wasn't Kaneria on trial, but Westfield was a minor player in the Essex team of 2009 and would almost certainly have needed someone else to introduce him to such a sordid deal. If Kaneria is innocent he should take legal action himself, not lie about his clearance certificate. After the Butt/Asif/Amir saga, Pakistan doesn't need any more controversy, even if it is Essex CCC which is more immersed in the sorry goings-on than Kaneria's national side.
With another Essex bowler, Don Topley, on record with allegations of taking money to fix games twenty-odd years ago, it does again raise the question of how many dodgy results in the past were down to squalid deals, either between players, teams or bookmakers. I really hope that the cheats are shown up and punished and lines drawn over what happened years ago. We just need to know that cheats don't prosper and cricket - domestic and international - is clean.
