Match-Fixing in Sports

One of the fundamental properties of sporting activities is uncertainty of process as
well as outcomes (Tak, Sam & Jackson, 2018). Match-fixing downgrades sports by removing
the aspect of uncertainty. It also undermines major sporting ideals, norms, and values, such as
passion, honesty, perseverance, determination and honesty (Tak, Sam & Jackson, 2018). It is
for these reasons that match-fixing is considered a major threat to sports. Unfortunately,
match-fixing is a fairly common problem with a long history in sports. There are two main
motives for match-fixing. The first one is desire for sporting success, such as when two teams
fix the result of a match if the result is likely to be beneficial to both of them. The other key
motive of match-fixing is gambling (Nafziger & Ross, 2011). According to Tak, Sam &
Jackson (2018), in the context of gambling, match-fixing is organized by parties that bet on a
match’s final results or some specific event in a match via betting firms (both legal and
illegal), while bribing key stakeholders to engineer the desired results, such as players,
coaches, or referees. In recent decades, gambling-related match-fixing has become the main
cause of match-fixing. This paper examines the Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal and the
consequences that the scandal had on him and his accomplices.

Hansie Cronje was South Africa’s cricket captain and considered one of the greatest
cricketers of his generation. His talent and leadership had helped South Africa to become a
top cricketing team in the world. Despite its dominance, South Africa controversially lost to
England in a 1999-2000 cricket match. An investigation into the game revealed that Hansie
Cronje had received £5,000 and a leather jacket from a betting firm in India to throw the
match away (Robinson & Parry, 2017). Further investigation into match-fixing in cricket by
South Africa’s King’s Commission revealed that the England-South Africa match was not an
isolated case. Rather, Hansie Cronje had been involved in fixing multiple other matches in

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previous years (Robinson & Parry, 2017). In return, he had been paid handsomely by
bookmakers, mainly from India. Cronje had even co-opted some of his colleagues in South
African national team into his match-fixing activities.

At first Cronje denied the match-fixing claims. However, when overwhelming
evidence against him, including phone conversations with some of the bookmakers, he was
forced to confess that he had been actively participating in match-fixing. He also confessed to
being paid for fixing the matches. Such was the large amounts of money he received that he
was able to have to 72 bank accounts in offshore Cayman Islands (Robinson & Parry, 2017).
Found guilty of match-fixing, Hansie Cronje received one of the harshest punishments in
sporting history. He was banned from engaging in cricket activities for life. Thus, he could
not play, coach, manage, or make commentaries about cricket matches. In effect, the ban cut
him off from any income obtained from cricket-related activities. He did not live long to
experience the full force of his ban as he tragically died in a plane crash in 2002 (Robinson &
Parry, 2017).

The case of Hansie Cronje shows the dangers of match-fixing to the affected sport and
to the parties that engage in the vice. Cronje’s actions threw South Africa’s cricket into
disrepute. At an individual level, his actions resulted in a disgraceful end to a career that had
captured the imagination of his nation. There was no way that he could recover from the
reputational damage caused by the scandal. Thus, the lesson learnt from the scandal is that
match-fixing not only undermines the integrity of sports, it also poses great reputational risk
to the affected parties.

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References

Nafziger, J.A.R. & Ross, S.F. (Eds.). (2011). Handbook on international sports law. Edward
Elgar: Cheltenham, UK.

Robinson, S., & Parry, J. (2017). The impact of corruption on individual athletes, teams, and
organizations. In Corruption in Sport: Causes, Consequences, and Reform (pp. 91-
109).

Tak, M., Sam, M. P., & Jackson, S. J. (2018). The problems and causes of match-fixing: are
legal sports betting regimes to blame? Journal of Criminological Research, Policy
and Practice.