The cheat I respect

"My name is Lou Vincent and I am a cheat." 

Lou Vincent is a former New Zealand Test cricketer who was heavily involved in match fixing in English county cricket. He has, correctly, been suspended for life from involvement in cricket.
Unlike so many in the same situation, however, he has placed the blame where it rests, upon his own shoulders! His statement above is remarkably free of the bullshit that characterises similar statements from business people, journalists, politicians, sportspeople and other celebrities who have been caught doing the wrong thing. He admits his guilt, without qualification. He acknowledges that he has depression, but states bluntly that his depression never prevented him from knowing "right from wrong".  He has fully co-operated with the relevant authorities.

He accepts the penalty that he has been given because for a professional sport to prosper, there can be no tolerance of match fixing. The days where one could claim naivete are long past. This is a serious matter for a sport, this isn't some drunken idiot playing games with his own urine. That we have all paid so much attention to Todd Carney's photo yet so little attention to the recent story about NRL players gambling on the game says volumes about the importance we, as fans, place upon the integrity of the game that we follow. Why weren't we all making comments about that? We can't just blame the mass media because with our own social networking choices, we help drive how that mass media acts.

I respect Lou Vincent for looking himself in the mirror and deciding that his own personal integrity going forward is more important than his future cricketing career or maintaining respect for his past performances as a professional sportsman. The man shouldn't be involved with cricket again but I would  be willing to buy something off him or avail myself of his services in a different field because he has demonstrated honesty when self interest bade him otherwise. He cheated the game, but he had also cheated himself. He's stopped cheating himself, and he can move forward.

I wish him all the best in his future endeavours and thank him for making it clear that match fixing in cricket isn't just something being perpetrated on the sub continent by cricketers who aren't white!