SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Fathers falter amid match fixing allegations

WICC Chronicle
Wednesday 27 February 2008

Last night the Founding Fathers went down to the aptly named 'Thrill Killers' (TK's) in what pundits and fans alike are calling "the strangest game in some time". Major betting agencies are understood to have 'taken a bath' on the result and an investigation by the ICC has not yet been ruled out.

Despite the absence of some big name FFCC stars the Fathers fielded a competitive unit and looked the goods during the warm up. Captain Itchy lost the toss and the 'TK's elected to bat first.

The opening pair for the TK's looked confident striving to the crease and in a curious departure from protocol Itchy selected himself as opening bowler. Uncharacteristic bowling and fielding errors soon followed and the opening over was to be without a single wicket. Itchy followed up his own bowling by selecting Nads, Gladdy and Madman. The errors continued to flow and by the time the 4th over was completed the 'TK's' were 50 runs without loss.

The news got a little better for the Fathers during the second pair who were kept to only 17 runs. The third and fourth pairs got 46 and 31 runs respectively and the phones to Centrebet were running hot. What had gone wrong? Uncharacteristic errors in the field coupled with sub-standard bowling had fans, the media and game officials puzzled.

It was now the Fathers turn at bat. The in form opening pair of Gladdy and Kermie were sent in by Itchy to get the Fathers off to the best possible start. A week previous this dynamic duo had posted a 60+ run opening pair so Captain Itchy was justified in his selection of them again. Unfortunately for the Fathers but perhaps fortunately for those who had backed the 'TK's' at 12 to 1 Kermie and Gladdy could only manage a paltry 30 runs.

The remaining pairs of Andrew and Madman (36), Norris and Itchy (10) and Gilly and Nads (52) worked as hard as their scores suggest but ultimately the Fathers fell short by 17 runs. The potential for vast sums to have been made by betting against a red hot Fathers outfit combined with spread betting on certain players is obvious.

One thing is for sure, certain FFCC players have not heard the end of this affair. The FFCC anti -corruption unit have already swung into action and offshore accounts have been frozen .
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