Whether any of the Pakistani players – all of which would be in hotels with access to sky – saw it ,I couldn’t say.

If they did, they might have seen an interesting tale.

For those who haven’t seen it, or know little about the story, it is the incident that started the “say it aint so, Joe” phrase that is overused in any situation like this comes from.  8 Chicago white sox lost the ’19 World Series on purpose.

Nothing like what is happening in cricket today.

The players are getting no money because their owner is a tight fisted asshole, despite being a shit hot team.  Then they get approached by men who see that they are pissed at being broke, and offer them money to fix the World Series.

One player never even goes to the meeting.

Then the series starts and the pitcher confirms the fix by slamming his second pitch into a batters body as proof.

One of the players pulls out of the fix early on, that causes problems with the rest of the fixers.  Plus, they win a couple of games by accident, because the players who are trying are still so good.

The players don’t get all the cash they are promised and they start to rebel. They win one game when their pitcher realises he is never getting paid.

Then another pitcher throws the last game when his wife’s life is allegedly threatened.

It is all a bit of a shit storm.  The court case had stolen documents and an even more rigged result than the series itself.  Not even all the dodgy bastards who set up the fixes made their money and the players made almost nothing.  The players were all given life bans, even the one who refused to fix.  And the owners kept fucking over the players for years to come.

But the main part of the story is almost always about Shoeless Joe Jackson.  While most of the players were top class, they were more grizzled veterans, but Shoeless Joe Jackson was the balls.

He was the poor kid who became a superstar.  A Ricky Ponting like baseballer, not the best hitter, but the best package including his fielding and a statistical wonder.

So when it all went bad, he was the main part of the story.  He was the loss to baseball, the others were part of the disgrace, but he was the headline and heartbreak.

From the way this scandal has been reported you can see that Mohammad Amir is the shoeless character.

One of the first reactions people had (just after they said, not at Lord’s) was why did it have to be Amir.  Why the young talent that seemed to be able to do anything on the cricket field.

The special one.

Oh, it can’t be him, we love him so, why couldn’t it just be the old druggie one, or the one that isn’t that good anyway.

If Amir leaves the game I wonder if in years to come he will be the big heartbreak for fans, fans who might be happy that the fixing was outed, will probably never be happy with Amir being part of it. Even if he escapes a life ban, this episode will be about him.

Shoeless Joe was the player who was never in the discussions, some still question if he was involved in the fix, even though he did confess.  In the World Series he did hit quite well, just not at the times when Chicago were losing.

If Amir is found guilty, I wonder if in 20,50 or 70 years whether there will be people who still believe that he was in this against his will, or framed, or just a young boy from a poor background who got confused and sucked in by others.

It is often said that Shoeless Joe kept playing baseball in semi pro leagues under pseudonyms b ecause he continued to love the game.  It was that sort of romance that has kept him as a loved figure of a shit episode over the years.

Amir didn’t kiss the grass at Lord’s to trick people into thinking he wasn’t fixing, he kissed it because he wanted to.

Personally I am still too pissed off to be too romantic about Amir.  But it didn’t take long of watching this film to realise that he and Shoeless Joe shared some common ground.

Give me a break.

He may be 17 on the ICC forms, but if he is under 20 he is doing well.

Some news places were talking about how he wasn’t born when Pakistan won their last world cup, my ass he wasn’t.

Barring Misbah Cricket, all Pakistanis lie about their age.

If Shahid Afridi is really only 29 I will eat my fathers left nut.

And with all that in mind, here is an excerpt from an excerpt of Younis Khan’s candid interview from Well Pitched.

When reminded he was only 31 (twice during the interview)

Younis laughed and said that 31 was only his official age on paper. He admitted he was only a year younger than Misbah (35) and that he was born in 1975.

Perhaps now the commentators and Journalists, who know this crap goes on, can stop talking about Pakistani teenagers once and for all.