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CORRUPTION IN THE CLUB
BACKGROUND
Occasionally this website does investigative work to uncover the dark corners of Superstars CC and try to name and shame culprits. Fortunately this "speaking truth to power" is uncommon but over the past 40 games a shameful trend has emerged that the website felt compelled to investigate. Superstars CC have a rich and glorious history of over 800 games, however since the end of the 2017 season the lowest total record has been beaten on three occasions. These occasions are-
57 all out vs Dodgers (31/08/2017)
39 all out vs Bricklayers Arms (12/06/2018)
36 all out vs Treasury & Cabinet Office (02/08/2018)
It is worth noting that we've beaten all three of these teams in the last two seasons so these performances are particularly hapless.
We spoke to a renowned statistician (who would have earned a Nobel Prize for his Superstars Stats if there was a Nobel Prize for Statistics) about this worrying trend, looking for an informed technical opinion and he said "yeah mate, looks well dodge". Having got this valuable insight and statistical proof that this trend was significant and unlikely to be caused by chance we furthered our investigation.
LIKELY FACTORS
Whilst it was impossible to prove any links to match fixing it is worth considering why any Superstar would want such repeated collapses and who would be in the strongest place to ensure such hapless cricket. The kind of Superstar susceptible to such incidents could be-
i) Captains, they set the tone of the team and make vital decisions like batting orders and whether to force their side to look into the blinding sun for an innings.
ii) Lower-middle order batsmen, while a collapse at the top of the innings can always happen (high quality opposition bowling, tough target to chance because our bowling was poor) the middle order will virtually always recover the situation because opponents go easy, bring on the weaker bowlers etc etc. So to ensure a collapse continues it's best to position yourself in positions 3-9.
iii) Wicket keepers, I haven't worked this one out yet but we can all see where this is heading so it make sense to beef it out a bit.
SUSPECTS
During these three games 24 different Superstars made appearances (some more glimpsing than others). Clearly those that made one appearance are of no interest to the prosecution but all became useful witnesses. One witness, who didn't wish to be named so we're going to call "Gaughty", spoke of an inevitability in the game he appeared in - "it was almost as if whatever we tried a greater force was at play ensuring this was a bad gig". Another witness, who as a Knight of the Realm brings an impecable moral standing, felt under such pressure in another game that it was almost as if bright lights were being directed at him as the bowlers were running in.
Five players had played two games, they being John Bishop, Konrad Chodzko-Zajko, Chairman Matthew Conway, James Hemingway and Gary Plahe. All of these have been contacted and warned that their involvement is being monitored however there is no reason to believe this more more than co-incidence and lack of actual cricketing ability. It's worth noting these players don't fill the criteria above. The same is true of one of the two players to appear in all three of these games, Roy Varghese, who as a tailender could not realistically blamed.
One final player played in all three games and we can confirm that our crack team of investigators are hoping to speak to a 69 year-old gentleman from Kent regarding the situation. We've released the following picture - pixelated due to legal reasons - of the suspect. We'd urge the man to give himself up - he's run out of options, much like his batting partners.
Barry Gigg pixelated
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Related content
Dodgers (31/08/2017, 57 all out)
Bricklayers Arms (12/06/2018, 39 all out)
Treasury & CO (2/08/2018, 36 all out)
Previous Corruption
Match Fixing Allegations Identified
Corruption Suspects Named
Dodgers 23rd May 2012
Pirates 8th May 2013
Dodgers 23rd May 2013
Commons Old Boys 3rd June 2014
Hounslow Leisure 17th June 2014
Treasury Solicitors 28th Aug 2014