Karma is a bitch Gulam, so excuse me if sympathy is somewhat lacking from myself and the general cricketing fraternity.

Following his outing as the ringleader of the match-fixing saga that rocked South African cricket earlier this year, Gulam Bodi was handed a 20-year ban from all forms of cricket.

Now Bodi has spoken out in an interview about how he feels hard done by, with this below from the SA Cricket Mag:

‘I took a lot of flak in the media when this all started,’ Bodi said. ‘Then, when the other guys were named, in a way it was only a storm in a teacup. Looking back, I think my sanction was pretty harsh.’

He claims that the person who blew the whistle on him, since identified as former Proteas opener Alviro Petersen, entertained thoughts of fixing before turning away from the dark side.

Alviro himself has a rather different take on the matter, one I am far more inclined to believe than the drivel that Bodi is trying to sell the public. This from another SA Cricket Mag story:

‘He [Bodi] called me on the morning of the game and said we had to get together,’ Petersen said. ‘He was already driving from Johannesburg to Durban because he didn’t want there to be any record of him being in Durban.

I immediately called CSA’s anti-corruption unit with his information and they were on the next flight to Durban.’

They apparently decided that Petersen would set a trap for Bodi by negotiating with him over how much money he would be paid per game to under-perform. According to Rapport’s information these figures were as high as R700 000 per game.

‘That meeting was the last of three I had with Bodi. CSA officially charged him the next day [5 November]. A day later [6 November] I had a meeting with one of the investigators at our match against the Titans in Potchefstroom and he told me it was over for Bodi.’

Petersen says the story of his involvement in the alleged match-fixing was ‘planted’ by the Bodi camp in an attempt to discredit him as the whistleblower.

‘I started working with CSA’s anti-corruption unit days before my first meeting with Bodi and they are aware of every conversation we had. Bodi doesn’t know that.’

According to Petersen he also shared his information with the famous state prosecutor Gerrie Nel. Petersen says Bodi targeted ‘vulnerable players’.

‘He is much smarter than people realise. He approached me the first time by saying that he wanted to invest a lot of money into my cricket school.’

So just how is Bodi paying the bills these days?

Bodi lives in Azaadville in the West Rand with a wife who is expecting their second child in May.

‘I’m basically buying and selling, wholesaling – cosmetics, groceries, used cars. I’ve got to try everything now because you only have cricket as a back-up. I only had cricket and, when that went, there was basically nothing.’

Perhaps you should have thought about that before you tried to cheat both fans and players out of fair contests.

Sorry Gulam, preying on vulnerable players and tainting the reputation of the game should mean time behind bars AND a lifetime ban from all involvement in cricket.

[sources:sacricketmag,sacricketmag]