Although it might be considered distasteful for Football Is Fixed and Dietrological to gain kudos from the tragic murder of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer, it should be noted that we posted on Sunday at 07:31GMT that the Pakistan/Ireland game had been hijacked by some Pakistani players and South Asian bookmakers (see: http://footballisfixed.blogspot.com/2007/03/begosh-and-begorra.html) and on Monday at 13:12GMT we posted that the complicit players and bookmakers shared responsibility for Woolmer's death (see: http://footballisfixed.blogspot.com/2007/03/official-cause-of-death-south-asian.html).
Spectacular society released the news of suspicious death and the potential gambling ring involvement only on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. We warrant some respect for our clear holistic overview of what, after all, is not even our prime sport.
We now have two theories that may even co-exist once the police investigation is completed.
Firstly, the book that Woolmer was in the process of writing regarding corruption in cricket had been stolen and the man had failed to maintain a back-up copy. The contents would have lifted the lid on the criminal world of South Asian cricket bookmakers and their links both with international players (from all major countries) and British bookmakers. In the psychopathic world of betting markets this warrants strangulation.
Secondly, as we pointed out in the post released the morning after the cursed match, the probability of Ireland defeating Pakistan was remote. Many major gamblers/ gambling rings who are outside the loop on both an institutional and an analytical level (ie they have lots of cash, no contacts and no nous) undertake a trading strategy known as "Buying Money". Such individuals, often trading with laundered money, place mammoth positions on very short odds favourites (betting $20m to win $0.5m on a 1/40 shot for example). Being out of the loop, these operators would have been caught out by Pakistan's insider underperformance. Woolmer was targeted as a cultural revenge.
Professionals also undertake this form of trading but no professional analyst would go anywhere near a position on Pakistan in such an event. Crazy trading...
Our Trading Team expect that scenarios of this type will become far more frequent in a future of the semi-legal billion pound football betting markets that will arrive in the next two to five years. Individuals already reach a sticky end in the underground South East Asian street markets in Macau, Hong Kong, Thailand and Vietnam and all security conscious operations take into account such issues when establishing a business profile and structure.
This is neither the time nor place to provide public details of the extensive and layered security that Dietrological and myself utilise to protect ourselves both physically and informationally. But, any individual or organisation that wishes to actively participate in the illegal liquid football betting markets should use this awful death to provide momentum towards establishing a secure trading structure that allows you to sleep comfortably at night.
ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed at least admits that the sport of international cricket has a problem of corruption within the game. If only the English Premiership and their compliant authorities and institutions would be similarly enlightened...
Even if the ICC allow the tournament to continue, all betting on the competition should be banned out of respect for a good man.
