Saturday, October 24, 2009

Match Fixing?

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished. October 21. Luxembourg Tennis Open. Caroline Wozniacki, ranked number 6 in the world, was leading in the first round against Anne Kremer of Luxembourg. The score was 7-5, 5-0. At that moment she retired from the match because of hamstring injury.

Looks like she was having hamstring injury problem from the beginning. When the score stood at 3-0 in the second set, her dad told her to retire before winning the match because her injury will prevent her from playing in the next round. This was picked up over the microphone and heard by the people watching the match on the internet.

Caroline did a wonderful gesture for her opponent by allowing her to advance to the next round in front of her hometown spectators. She said:

“I could possibly have finished the match, but felt there was no way I could get ready for the second round on Thursday, so I chose the sporting way and let her go through. She's also [playing] at home.”

What did Caroline get for her sportsmanship? WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) is now investigating Caroline for 3 big offences, gambling, match fixing, and tennis integrity.

Serena Williams verbally assaulted a line judge and she got a slap on the wrist.

I had written the following in reply to a comment on a previous posting:

Wimbledon. The year 1960. Semi Final Match. India’s Ramanathan Krishnan vs. Australia’s Neale Fraser. A shot from Fraser was called “out” in favor of Krishnan. Krishnan interceded and told the umpire that it was “in”. Krishnan, instead of gaining a point lost a point. Eventually that call was instrumental in Krishnan losing the match to Fraser.

Next week, a Tamil weekly, Kalki, put the picture of Krishnan on the cover and put a caption from Bhagvat Gita: "Paritranaya Sadhunaam vinashaya cha dushkritamDharma sansthapnarthaya sambhavami yugay yugay" (Whenever there is downfall of Dharma (righteousness), I incarnate to re-establish the Dharma.)

May be Krishnan would be investigated for match fixing in today’s world.

16 comments:

  1. oh my, this is a shocking piece of news...in that Serena post i mentioned that there should be a rule book specifying the punishments for certain offenses...but after reading this, what will be the use of that rule book?

    a sportsmanship gesture can lead u behind bars if u r proved guilty for the charges imposed on u...really sad...

    I love tennis, but i hate this system..

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  2. Thanks for your comments Neha. I think rules are bent based on one's popularity and audience attraction.

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  3. This is absurd. A gesture is being deemed as match fix? What has the world come to?

    Really sad

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  4. Very sad to know...strange are the ways of this manipulating world.

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  5. Thanks for your comments Insignia. They enforce the rules selectively and not uniformly.

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  6. Thanks for your comments Antarman. It is very sad indeed.

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  7. These are what u can expect from associations!!! This is wrong one should respect her for being honest and showing the true sportsmanship!!!

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  8. Thanks for your comments Nazish. This is want she gets for showing the true sportsmanship.

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  9. this is because the evil has overshadowed the good. Everything today is being seen with suspicion and when such rare glimpse of sportmanship is seen, it obviously raise eye borrows because it is "not expected". the point is we should not hold any prejudice and keep our eyes equally open for both good and bad

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  10. This is really sad.. Theres no good in goodwill any more.

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  11. Thanks for your comments Mustaf. As you said, everything today is seen with suspicion.

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  12. Thanks for your comments Rajlakshmi.

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  13. Gambling? Match fixing?

    Ouch!

    Once your name is connected to these negative buzzwords it will follow you for life.
    Your other accomplishments will be diminished and this will be highlighted forever.

    Regards,
    Pete Rose

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  14. So true. Benevolent actions are truly viewed with suspicion these days. I read how Adam Gilchrist said that whenever he walked off the field when he knew he was out ( even before the umpire gave him out) it caused a lot of tension in the dressing room and the other players did not view his action kindly.

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  15. Thanks for your comments Pete. I agree with all your words. All your accomplishments have been diminished.

    When you were charged with gambling, you made a statement and I still remember to this day. You said: I bet on my team to win because I love my team. I believe in my team. I did everything in my power every night to win that game.

    No matter what any of those baseball mucky mucks think, you will always be a hero to millions of us.

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  16. Thanks for your comments Radha. I appreciate the information on Adam Gilchrist. May be we should call him Australia's Ramanathan Krishnan. Or, cricket's Ramanathan Krishnan.

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