Suarez Eight Match Ban

No-one can condone racism in any walk of life, even football, which often likes to think of itself as being above the law on occasion. If Luis Suarez was guilty of racially abusing Patrice Evra he deserves everything he gets in the way of a ban and/or fine. Evra has admitted to insulting Suarez in Spanish just before the incident, although the Uruguayan told the FA he never heard it."

I have one worry about the whole incident and that is the fact that the only person who heard the comment, and it was apparently said ten times, was Patrice Evra. This despite the fact that there were other players around the incident. It then boils down to Evra's word against Suarez's word, and the FA chose to believe Evra. Why or how was the evidence in favour of a judgement against Suarez? As a PR exercise this is a potential disaster for the Football Association, as some members of the footballing community will feel aggrieved at the outcome since it appears that nothing has been proven.

Would the same judgement have been made had Suarez reported Evra for racist comments?

I get the impression that whatever the actual story, and let's face it the only people who really know what went on are Suarez and Evra, the FA were going to "send out a message" to deter other players from making the same error in judgement.

I thought Mario Balotelli made a poignant/amusing remark on twitter along the lines of "The FA believe Evra with no evidence whatsoever; the entire Manchester United squad racially abused me then - haha".

I await with interest the conclusion of the police enquiry into the John Terry/Anton Ferdinand case (the police are involved because it was reported by a member of the crowd), where there is TV evidence incriminating Terry, the current England captain.

Can Cricket Recover?

Everyone seems pleased that the three Pakistan cricketers and their agent involved in the summer's spot-fixing row have been given jail sentences, although it has highlighted just how pathetic the ICC's attempts to curb this behaviour are. It has been very reminiscent of parliament when someone finally takes action over something that everyone knows is wrong, lots of people jump on the bandwagon and say how they'd have done the same thing given the opportunity, or that the ICC needs to have a long, hard look at itself. All very easy when you don't actually take any risks.

The real worry is the damage that these people (the guilty ones) have caused the game of cricket. Even at the time Michael Holding and the rest of the Sky commentary team thought something was awry, certainly with Amir's no balls, that were so far over it was ridiculous. And then the news broke that they were pre-arranged when the NOTW printed its story.

As plenty of media types have said one now starts to look back at games where extraordinary things have happened and wonder whether games were thrown, certainly ones involving Pakistan, who have always blown hot and cold during matches and series. Especially since other players' names are being bandied about as being involved, and not all Pakistani from what I can gather.

And will the prison sentences really deter others from spot-fixing? Asif was reputedly paid £65,000 for his no-ball, which is about three and a half years wages on a PCB contract - not bad for a fast(ish) bowler approaching 30 and with a limited shelf life. Apart from the fact that he was caught and has to spend a year in prison of course.

We have been in a similar situation before after Hansie Cronje was caught and banned at the same time as a couple of others, who if memory serves, were from Pakistan. Cricket recovered then and almost certainly will again. There is now increased pressure on players not to have a howler though, as they may well find themselves under investigation Spanish Inquisition style, which would be unfair.

Only time will tell I suppose, but I really hope the popularity of cricket isn't adversely affected by the greed of a few.