It's not cricket

The allegations against 4 Pakistan players places a dark cloud over the entire game. Whether a few no balls here and there influences the outcome of the game or not is not the point. The issue is that the sport becomes corrupted. Its easy to understand the temptation for Pakistani cricketers who earn a fraction of what their counterparts here, in Australia or of course the IPL earn, however that can not excuse the deed. One can only hope that the ICC respond swiftly and decisively.

Meanwhile Kevin Pietersen has been dropped from the 50 over and T20 series against Pakistan. His form has been poor by his own extremely high standards this summer , but at first glance it seems strange to omit him from the forms of the game where he has traditionally excelled. On the plus side the fact that he is turning out for Surrey on loan till the end of the season is an exciting development, that will hopefully bring a few more spectators to the Oval.