Iain O'Brien knew Lou Vincent 'had been up to no good'
Former New Zealand Test cricketer Iain O'Brien describes August 30, 2012, as one of the saddest moments of his career.
It was the day he confronted former Test teammate Lou Vincent and confirmed his own suspicions Vincent had been involved in widespread match fixing.
The Daily Telegraph (London) recently reported Vincent had agreed on a plea bargain with the International Cricket Council's (ICC) anti-corruption unit to provide information in exchange for avoiding a criminal prosecution for his involvement in, and knowledge of, match fixing between 2008 and 2012.
The specialist Twenty20 batsman reportedly provided information about matches which were targeted for fixing, as well as the names of players involved, during his spells in England (Lancashire and Sussex), India (Chandigarh Lions), New Zealand (Auckland), Hong Kong (Sixes tournament) and South Africa (Mid West Rhinos).
O'Brien, a pace bowler who took 73 wickets in his 22 Tests for New Zealand between 2005 and 2009, wrote a moving column for the Telegraph in which he detailed the moment he confronted Vincent in a restaurant in London.
"I knew he had been up to no good. It becomes evident, as a player, that what you see is not always real," he wrote.
"That moment you learn that wrestling on TV isn’t real. It is acting. It is hard to believe at first and then, when you have watched a lot, or been around it endlessly, you see it for what it really is. There is no going back."
O'Brien, now a BBC commentator based in the UK, said he first suspected Vincent's fixing in the Indian Cricket League (T20) while on tour with the New Zealand side in 2008.
"On a Test tour of Bangladesh, 2008, we, the New Zealand team watched a lot of the Indian Cricket League," he wrote.
"We watched some of the most unbelievable cricket; leaving and or padding up to straight ones, run outs by massive distances in curious circumstances, batsmen playing out maidens, no-balls and wides just too big and too often to be natural mistakes.
"And this included Lou Vincent. He had walked away from a New Zealand contract to take part in a lucrative league. We knew what was going on. Without a shadow of doubt Lou was fixing."
But O'Brien said it wasn't just the now-defunct Indian Cricket League that experienced fixing.
"It happens here, in the UK. More than in just the matches we have read about from Lou’s accounts," he wrote.
"In the previous two World Twenty20s I watched a highly respected player swap his bat...A wicket fell in the next over...A change of bat can be a sign to a bookie that the fix is on."
O'Brien said he had considered assisting the ICC anti-corruption unit.
"The issue is, knowing and proving. Should I, as an ex-player and now commentator, be reporting suspect activity to the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit? Maybe I should."
