Cricket: Match-fixing law welcome but should go further: lawyer

Hansie Cronje was banned for life for match-fixing. Picture / Getty Images

Sports law specialist Aaron Lloyd has welcomed the criminalisation of match-fixing that has passed into law this week, but says the legislation should go even further.

Lloyd said the Crimes (Match-fixing) Amendment Bill is "a really good law change", but points out that the terms of reference did not cover all types of manipulation. Match-fixing will be criminalised only if it relates to the manipulation of betting outcomes.

"Imagine this hypothetical scenario," Lloyd told the Herald. "You're in the last round of a tournament, it doesn't matter which sport, and you need to win to make the playoffs. The team you are playing has no chance of making the playoffs. The owners could get together and it would be agreed that the team with no chance would throw the match for financial reward.

"That is not covered by this law change," he said.

"It might sound fanciful, but it's not out of the question."

The select committee took the view that the sports themselves should administer such scenarios within their own, non-legislative, codes of conduct, but Lloyd would like to see the law broadened in time.

"We live in a world where sport is valuable, both economically and emotionally," Lloyd said. "As a punter, we don't go to watch sport because it is scripted. We love it because it is unscripted, we love the possibility of an upset. There's real value in that.

"The sad truth is that particularly in football and cricket, things aren't always as they seem."

In the past 20 to 30 years, the "value" of sport, not necessarily commercially but certainly emotionally, has been eroded by the twin spectres of doping and fixing.

For some, the integrity of sports like cycling and athletics has been forever tainted by doping, while the Hansie Cronje affair shone a light into cricket's murkier corners.

New Zealand has not been immune to match-fixing scandals, despite match-fixing being seen in recent years as a largely subcontinental disease.

Former Kiwi batsman Lou Vincent this year confessed to match-fixing across multiple countries and competitions and has been banned for life.

In October next year, legendary allrounder Chris Cairns will face trial for perjury in the High Court in London. This relates to an earlier successful libel trial, where he said he had never cheated at cricket and would not contemplate doing such a thing. Cairns has denied wrongdoing and says match-fixing allegations against him are "despicable lies".

"Legislation to punish match-fixing is clearly a good idea," Lloyd said. "It's a mechanism to protect the value and integrity of sport. From that point of view, the amendment is great."

The bill was passed with the express purpose of being in place in time for two huge global tournaments being hosted in New Zealand next year - the Cricket World Cup and the Fifa Under-20 World Cup.

Those suspected of match- fixing in New Zealand can be arrested, charged and could face up to seven years in jail if found guilty, which brings match-fixing into line with other forms of fraud.