Collingwood Cricket submit false results in match-fixing scandal

Collingwood College Cricket Club have been accused of match-fixing in this season’s indoor league, after a suspicious discrepancy between two versions of their Bs vs Cs derby.

The Bs’ result, a win in their derby against Collingwood’s Cs, was soon after reported on Twitter.

Just a simple tweet revealed the truth

The problem arose when it came to officially submitting the results to Team Durham; upon following this up, the cheating conspiracy was subsequently unravelled.

It is alleged that, owing to the Cs being top of their group, and the Bs’ relatively strong position, both the Collingwood captain and president were desperate for both teams to make it through to the semi finals.

The Cs were reportedly under instructions to lose their less successful counterparts, such that the Bs had a significantly improved chance of qualifying.

In a strong act of defiance, a number of Collingwood C players boycotted the game, meaning that the captain and president, both members of the A team, filled in.

The intentions of these senior players and the extent to which they played to the best of their ability has been called into question by a source; the result ended with the Bs winning by about 20 runs.

At the time, both teams had lost only one game and were looking to both comfortably qualify from the group.

The league as it looked at the time of writing

The situation changed, however, when the Cs surprisingly lost to Hild Bede later that day, and the ideal result from the derby switched from a Bs to a Cs win.

Despite league regulations explicitly stating that results must be submitted within 48 hours, with the match in question taking place on the weekend, Collingwood waited until Wednesday 15th to inform Team Durham of their score.

The result this time?

Collingwood C were now the winners, and by an extremely tight margin – a very kind result for the Bs’ run difference.

Butler Cricket Club players, James Priest and Robert George, were at the derby and were able to confirm that the tweeted result was, in fact, the correct one; they are supported by two Collingwood players who were also present, and are apparently irate about the poor sportsmanship shown by senior members of their club.

It is argued that Collingwood Cricket waited until Wednesday in order to submit the result that best suited them, owed to what has been described by one disillusioned player as ‘a vanity project by the captain and president to be able to say they got three Collingwood teams into the semi-finals.’

They had to do something to live up to the Sky Sports appearance…

The new result meant that the Cs would have been safe in their passage to the semi-finals, whilst the Bs, with their significantly better run difference, would most likely have knocked Butler A out of the competition.

If the correct result had been submitted, Collingwood C would almost certainly have been knocked out, owing to their poor run difference in comparison to their closest competitors.

Tom Newman, head of college sport and Collingwood alumnus, had initially amended the result to what it should have been, but Collingwood College Cricket Club have, as of yet, incurred no form of punishment for their explicit attempt to defraud Team Durham, the league, and its competitors.

They could be champions again…but at what cost?

After a meeting on Friday 14th, involving four college sports officers and Tom himself, it was decided that Newman would propose that the result be voided, effectively causing both Collingwood teams to lose.

Tom spoke to The Tab, saying he was told the difference in scores was down to a ‘miscommunication’.

Collingwood B then went on to beat Collingwood A in the final on Sunday, after the former defeated Cuths A and the latter Butler B in their respective semi-finals.

Again, there has, as of yet, been no punishment for CCCC’s breach of the rules and the all-revealing tweet has since been deleted.

It’s now nowhere to be seen

When approached by The Tab, Collingwood College Cricket Club declined to comment.