West Indies Cricket Fans

Fixing matches or individual performance is hardly new. Some historians claim it can be traced back to the 17th century, almost to the origins of the game. Allegations of cheating in the modern game too are hardly new. It is the frequency with which such stories have been doing the rounds and the apathy of administrators—and, one dare say, even players—to quash malpractice that is painful. The appeal of sport lies as much in the skills of players as in the trust and faith of fans that what they are watching is fact and not fixed. Without that trust, sport is reduced to sham.

Lloyd was awarded A$100,000 (Rs. 42.7 lakh now) by the high court, which the Melbourne Age went into appeal against in 1985. The appeals court upheld the newspaper’s plea that since no player had been named in the published column there was no libel.

The award to Lloyd was struck down, compelling the West Indies captain to go to the Privy Council, which sent the story topsy-turvy again by decreeing that the court of appeal had been wrong in overturning the high court’s ruling, and that Thorpe’s column in the Melbourne Age had indeed been libellous. So Lloyd won A$100,000 with costs. The Australian cricket team and Packer agreed to an out-of-court settlement with the newspaper.