Australia cricket team vice-captain Brad Haddin has said that the decision by domestic side Western Suburbs to declare their innings at 0-17 last Saturday so that Test skipper Michael Clarke could bat on the second day is akin to match-fixing.
Haddin made the sensational tongue-in-cheek statement at a press conference on Monday after Clarke had been named in the Australian Test squad for the first match against India starting December 4 pending a fitness test.
Suburbs captain Jeff Cook made the controversial call to declare early in the innings against Parramatta in a bid to ensure his side would bat on the second day, allowing Clarke to come in and get batting practice to prove his fitness to selectors, News.com.au reported.
That decision has backfired spectacularly after Clarke was on Monday named to play in a Cricket Australia XI team in Adelaide this weekend instead, meaning Cook's decision cost his team first innings points for nothing.
Haddin said that he doesn't really know the full extent of where that's at and how that happened, all he knew is that the captain there better be careful, as that looks like match-fixing to him.
Technically, Haddin is correct. Wests manipulated the situation of the game for a specific outcome, the ability of a player to bat in their line-up on the second day, which is fixing the state of play.
Clarke, fighting to overcome hamstring and back injuries, wanted to bat for Suburbs on Saturday to prove his fitness to selectors ahead of the first Test of the summer against India starting December 4 in Brisbane.
Parramatta skipper Michael Castle had been stunned when Suburbs captain Cook asked him at the toss to let his side bowl first last Saturday, in order for Clarke to bat on the second day this weekend.
However, Castle had intended to send Suburbs into bat. He said that Cook told me if he sent his side into bat, they would declare after one ball.
Castle claimed that Cook said he'd been put under pressure from Cricket NSW to bowl first so that Clarke could bat on the second day. He admitted that he has never been in a situation like this before, and he was shocked.
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