How to stop cheating in sports: The marketplace

Thomas R. Fox (tfox@tfoxlaw.com) is the Compliance Evangelist.

Australian cricket faces what may well be its greatest scandal, reaching the highest levels of the Australian national cricket team, due to a scheme to scruff the ball on a piece of sandpaper. The three major actors were all summarily booted off the team, and they and others may receive more punishment.

The Aussies were in the midst of a Test Series against South Africa, were tied 1-1, and decided they needed a bit of a leg up. According to reports, the entire leadership team of the Australian national team decided to cheat by altering the equipment (stop me if you have heard this story before). In one of the most amazing admissions ever, a team captain said in a post-game press conference “that the team’s ‘leadership group’ had convened during the lunch break on day three of the third Test to concoct a plan to tamper with the ball and encourage reverse swing—cheating, in simpler terms.”

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