Scandals

I've kind of gotten used to scandals involving baseball, football, etc. I've even become numb to revelations of unethical behavior in soccer and cycling. It turns out, though, that even the "highest of high" sports are not immune to scandal.

From the world of chess, it seems that Veselin Topalov is suspicious of Vladimir Kramnik's rather frequent need to use the bathroom during their chess match. In a letter/press release, Topalov's people charge:

After each move Mr. Kramnik immediately heads to the rest room and from it directly to the bathroom. During every game he visited the relaxation room 25 times at the average and the bathroom more than 50 times -- the bathroom is the only place without video surveillance.

Evidently there has been some suspicion that chess players may be getting signals from others or somehow accessing computer chess programs during matches to help them adapt their strategies mid-game. Topalov has threatened to withdraw from the match if his concerns are not addressed. I'm on the edge of my seat waiting to see how this one turns out.

I never would have suspected this from a sport that includes a "tea break", but there's rumbling in the cricket world as well:

Today the International Cricket Council has given the Pakistan captain a four match suspension for "bringing the game into disrepute". During a match in London last month against England the umpires awarded a five run penalty (not such a big deal as this would be in baseball, since at the time Pakistan had already scored over 500 runs in the game) for ball tampering. Essentially, the Pakistani bowlers were being accused of interfering with the ball to make it "reverse swing"- a kind of movement in the air which is highly unusual and difficult to achieve.

Now I'm not a cricket expert, but is it "ball tampering" if you simply use a new bowling technique that produces the right spin (or whatever) to make the ball move in a new, unexpected way? I'm thinking of how mystified batters were by Fernando's screwball when he first broke in with the Dodgers. In my mind "ball tampering" implies use of an illegal substance or cutting the ball or something like that. It seems there was no physical evidence of ball tampering, so it was more of ajudgmentt call. Further, the umpire who made the call has been accused of a racial bias in his calls. I don't know about that, but there does seem to be evidence that this "reverse spin" is not always viewed as evidence of cheating:

A lot of this has to do with the concept of reverse swing. It was "discovered" in Pakistan in the 1970s, and when it first started to happen in international games some England players and others accused the Pakistanis of cheating. However, last year when England defeated Australia for the first time in nearly 20 years their bowlers used reverse swing and were acclaimed for their skill rather than cheating.

I've got no expertise on either of these situations, but it is almost a relief to discuss a sports scandal that doesn't involve steroids. Hmm, maybe Barry Bonds could take up cricket after he passes Hank Aaron.