Cricket is a national obssession in Pakistan. Photo credit: Muzaffar Bukari

Should the Pakistan cricket team be sent home packing for their alleged involvement in the spot-betting scandal?

It has been a horrendous month for Pakistan and their proud people. First severe monsoon floods devastated the country. And now the cricket team – the pride and joy of the nation – are embroiled in an ugly fixing scandal which is bringing shame on the country and the sport.

An undercover sting operated by The News of the World implicates seven current Pakistan cricket stars in a alleged scam which saw some players underperform in exchange for payments from bookmakers. Embroiled in the corruption scandal are key players including captain Salman Butt and 18-year-old sensation Mohammad Amir.

Commentators feel the damage done will be hard to undo, especially given Pakistani cricketers sorry previous record of foul play. “The match-fixing scandal means that no cricket fan will ever be able to trust Pakistan again,” declared John Etheridge in The Sun. “Even if he (Amir) gets out of this scam, the spotlight will always be on him and his performance. That is a terribly sad thing because he is a great talent,” Pakistan ex-captain Ramiz Raja told The Sun.

Undoubted king of the condemnation squad was The Daily Mail’s outspoken Martin Samuel, who opened his stunning blindside: “There is no darker force in modern sport than Pakistan cricket. The disciples of the Balco chemical factory, the architects of Bloodgate, cheating footballers, the roid-raging big hitters of Major League Baseball, all pale beside the institutionalised corruption witnessed year on year when we look at Pakistan cricket.”

“Pakistan cricket is not maverick or mercurial, it is rotten,” argued Samuel and suggested that the Pakistan Cricket Board should “do the decent thing and go home.” “Why should we offer our hospitality (considering that terrorism has made it impossible to play international cricket in Pakistan)?” questioned Samuel.

But not all critics have rushed to put the boot in. The Guardian’s Stephen Moss urged forgiveness: “… far from banning the players involved, I would try to understand why they did it (if indeed they did), give them a slap on the wrists, and offer them one last chance. This is partly because I believe in the possibility of redemption, partly because it would be criminal (sinful even) never to allow the 18-year-old Mohammad Amir to play Test cricket again, but also because the key to the problem is not the uniquely vicious or stupid nature of Pakistan’s cricketers, it is the circumstances in which they have been forced to play.” “Rather than condemn and punish, let’s try to understand and repair,” suggested Moss.

One suspects Pakistani cricket fans would be more likely to side with Samuel than Moss at present. According to Reuters, furious protesters in Lahore slapped the names of players accused of taking bribes on the foreheads of unfortunate donkeys and then proceeded to pelt the poor beasts with shoes and rotten tomatoes. Butt and co should keep a low profile when they return home.