Waugh and Warne, with no apparent collusion, both admitted taking money from an Indian bookmaker during a tour of Sri Lanka the previous year. Warne, in fact, has not been given sufficient credit for his co-operation with ACB chief executive Malcolm Speed, who succeeded Halbish. It took Speed a considerable time to locate the injured bowler, but Warne did not hesitate when the situation was explained. The offer was made by a Wentworth Park bookmaker and Ponting rejected it. The ICC must confront a world partly of its own making as it deliberates on sanctions to stop match fixing.
Cricketers take the same attitude to illegal betting on cricket as they do to jaywalking.
They have probably become desensitised to it. After all, there is enough legalised gambling overseas in a sport which lends itself to thousands of odds on everything, including the weight of a muddied bail. An exploding cricket calendar leaves no time to worry about punters who bet and regret. Counselling cricketers who gamble the huge amounts of money administrators pay them is difficult. Cronje, like most cricketers, exchanged marriage vows with his sport which he interpreted to be for better, for worse, for richer and still richer.