Who knew it was a big gambling sport?
Odds going into the game were 50-1 against Ireland winning. (To give you some perspective, the odds are a mere 20-1 against the Pirates winning their division, which probably would entail playing over .500 — something, you may have heard, they haven’t done in 14 years.) Experts in gambling fraud say it is unlikely a whole match would have been thrown, though the defeat to Ireland raised that suspicion. The Asian subcontinent has many betting syndicates with links to organized crime. The Pakistan team has been scrutinized by match-fixing probes before, most notably during the 1999 World Cup when they lost to cricketing weakling Bangladesh. Cricket’s ruling body concluded that match-fixing was rife and that it continued to hang over the game going into the seven-week World Cup in the West Indies. The Pakistani team often falls under suspicion because it is full of unpredictable talent.
