RIP Cricket

It's been busy down at the rumour mill this week. There has been more than the seasonal amount of hot air in the sails, and everyone has been working extra hours. It was hoped that it was just a contingency plan, but every cricketing nightmare became reality last night as it was announced that Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach had indeed been murdered.

There seems to be two obvious scenarios at this juncture.

The first and the one that everyone is quietly praying for, is an outraged 'fan' was so distraught at Pakistan's loss to Ireland that they have done the unthinkable . This raises many question about why the game has attracted this kind of fantacism.

The finger seems to be firmly pointed at the media and the sponsorship of the game which is pushed on us almost to the point forceful aggression. Players become corporate and then in turn, public property.

We have already seen the attack on Mahendra Singh Dhoni's house this week. The feeling of intrinsic belonging that the fan is developing has warped the keen watcher into the dangerous fanatic. And the media? Well they just all went along for the ride.

If this were the case, the cricketing fraternity could turn a blind eye, claim it was a string of isolated incidents, and walk on by. Tragic but not immediately damaging to a game that many hold sacrosanct.

The second touted reason, and the one emerging from the most calloused hands of those driving the rumour mill is altogether more sinister and reaches far back into the sinews of cricketing history. It is a shadow on the shoulder of cricket that has been a constant blot on the horizon.

There have been reports of games being fixed reaching back to the dawn of the game, and ever since, it has risen and subsequently faded away, only to rear it's monstrous head with frightening frequency. Time after time it has been dismissed with the blinkered hope that it had finally been eliminated. The truth was known. It was always easier to ignore than combat though.

And so it has come to this. A potentially apocalyptic watershed moment in cricketing history. A man much loved and respected within the game has been murdered. The hands at the mill are working fast and there are numerous match fixing conspiracy theories.

But consider this. If Bob Woolmer, who many saw as uncorruptable, (and if that was ever found to be untrue, my faith in cricketers would be well and truly destroyed), stood between a bookie and his ability to affect the outcome of a game of cricket, and has subsequently been killed then this truly is the end of the level playing field. Which player in their right mind would compromise the safety of themselves or their family for a game. If this is the case (and i say this as I hold a bag for the produce of the rumour mill, firmly in my hands) then our beloved game will be brought to it's knees.

"If ain't broke....."

Well i'm afraid this time it is broken and it needs fixing