Corruption In Table Tennis Game: Issues And Implications

Match Fixing

Discuss about the Corruption in Table Tennis Game.

Table tennis is a funny and enjoyable game; now it is not only just a game but also a sport. According to most of the historians, they agree with the fact that the table tennis originated centuries ago in England. Nonetheless, it was the first played with the use of the makeshift equipment on the dining tables. In the eighteen century, individuals began to use the celluloid balls rather the use of the traditional rubber and cork (Chappelet, 2015). Various names have been given to the game such as gossimar, whi-whaff, and Ping-Pong. The name Ping-Pong has been the one that has caught on, and we still use it today. It has become a patented trade name for table tennis. Around the 1920s, the game was popular and in some of the several parts of the world, there was a movement that had started to revive the game as a dangerous sport (Guay, 2013). Like any sport, corruption has been rampant in the match. Various forms of corruption that exist in this game; some of the major crime that is most prolific in this game are issues of match fixing, the offering of the bribe to the decision makers, the aspect of financial and political influence, and the matter of less transparency and accountability in the game. The report will discuss on these prolific corruption issues and how they are affecting table tennis game.

This is the common form of corruption in the table tennis game. This game has been thought to be an attractive target for the match-fixers because there are only two players who are involved and a few vital point often decides the given matches. It is thus straightforward to influence the result of the game (Haberfeld & Sheehan, 2014). An example of this is at the Australian open, Buzz and the BBC released a report on the possibility of the widespread march fixing of the table tennis game. On the report, it alleges there was the involvement of the top ranked players, and the authorities have been ignoring on this claim. The table tennis official’s good opponent on the suspected issue of the match-fixing after the 2008 investigation, which found out evidence of the major tournament like Wimbledon. The report mentioned that there was a group of about of sixteen unnamed players, and they have all been ranked in the top 50 and more than half they had played in the Australia open (Kulczycki & Koenigstorfer, 2016). Further evidence has been noted from the player’s example, Bracciali who revealed that in 2007 he had been offered around two hundred thousand dollars to lose a first round match. Nonetheless, he rejected and highlighted that he did not attend the tournament and he would not take the offer. As an individual game, the fixing of this game is simple as a comparison to the team sports and the economics of the game not everyone makes a living wage which can leave some of the athletes to be vulnerable to corruption (Masters, 2015). The key element, which drives match fixing, is the culture of tanking especially when the players are deliberately underperforming for the core reasons as varied as scheduling, avoiding of the injuries or even a game to the fellow professional especially when in front of the home crowd. Additionally, match fixing occurs where a player performs poorly to get an advantage in the future such as a better draft pick or an easier opponent in the playoff.

Bribery to the Decision Makers

Table tennis is a game loved by many, but it becomes a crisis when there are issues of corruption especially to the decision makers such as referees. The leaked files from the anti-corruption investigators showed that several of the table tennis players including the glad winners of the Grand Slams have to bribe the decision makers during the past decade (Masters, 2015). According to the report from the BBC and the Buzzfeed, bribery of the policy makers has been rampant in the table tennis game (Jetter & Walker, 2015). Over the past decade, players have been flagged to the table tennis integrity unit over the suspicion of bribing the referees. The report alleged that despite an action on the issue been taken against the player by the group they instead tried to cover up for the changes and allow on the main suspect to continue to compete in the major tournaments. The report further explored how the decision makers are paid hundreds of thousands of pounds in Italy, Russia to rig on the decision that is made in the game. According to the Transparency International, corruption in the sport can take many forms (Pilon, 2015). The referees and the players can take the bribes to decide on its outcome. The recent cases of bribery that are seen in table tennis appear to have resulted from the cover-ups and the administrative negligence if not connivance (Munt, 2015). When the Grand Slam winners are alleged to be corrupt, and the administrators choose to ignore this fact for a whole decade, the entire institution of the table tennis thus become a farce, and a fraud perpetrated on all the fans and the followers of the game.

In most of the case before it used to be the sportsmen and women ran the sport. Then all that changed when money got in the way and the game became so professional that entailed individuals to be hired to run the competition (Wilson, 2016). Just like all the other sport, table tennis or Ping-Pong game has faced issues on finances and political influence. Financial constraints may cause the players and their leaders to undertake the aspect of corruption (Qingmin, 2013). This can be illustrated particularly when a player is not well compensated in a given club, or the country. A good example on this is the case of Rwanda where the national table tennis federation failed to raise enough funds to take the players to several tennis championships. In this case, there could be two scenarios; a player could be pouched to go to another club or country to play for them since they have the income to sustain them or these players if they find an opportunity especially in a fixed match them would take funds to lose a game. The case highlights how the financial aspect may cause corruption. On the other hand, politics and the sport describes the use of sport as a means to influence to the diplomatic, social and the political relations. The political influence has transcended the cultural differences and has brought individuals together. Nonetheless, politic and the sport in the tennis game has had some negative implication over the years (Yücel, Korkmaz & Çoban, 2013). The rich and the famous referred to this sport previously as the gentleman’s game that was played and watched; this brought isolation of a given group of people. An example is in South Africa where there was the case of Apartheid, this sport was used to isolate individuals and bring out a major overhaul of the country social structure. Additionally, there are numerous athletes who has sought the political office, and some of them were unsuccessful on either at the national or the sub-national levels. In some of other situation due to political influence led to thaw of relations with different nations. An example of this in 1970s an exchange of the table tennis players from the USA and that of the Republic of China led to the thaw in the Sino-American relations, which caused a rapprochement of the USA president Richard with China.

The Financial and Political Issues

Transparency and responsibility entail honesty and openness in the match. There are set of conventional social manner and the rules, which the players should exhibit and show to make the playing of the game enjoyable and fun for every individual (Chadwick, 2014). The players are expected to conduct themselves on the court in a manner of sportsmanship way and respect their opponents and the umpires (Rodenberg & Feustel, 2014). The failure to following these rules could result in suspension, termination or the loss of the privileges to play. In playing this sport, there are instances of dishonesty that arise especially when an opponent is honest about a point, but the umpires call on it incorrectly. In case the opponent shot barely nicks, the table and the referee call on it on award your favor you should be honest and a point to the opponent who has earned it. This way you tend to be respected for the honesty. Another instance where less transparency has dominated is on the blocking of the opponent. In most of the cases, they undoubtedly would want to warm up their loop; there is for you to passively block to enable them to warm up. In case you block it too fast or keep on smashing the ball back, they would not comfortably warm the strokes up (Shearer, 2014). In the warm up do not want try to win the points. Some individuals are selfish and want to show off what they have even though it is a warm up. There is a need to be consistent and feed the opponent enough balls that what good sportsmanship entails. Additionally, there are instances for dishonest, particularly when one opponents do not obey the rule and have an upper advantage over the other (Hwang, 2016). This is usually very frustrating especially when one has advantage over you gained by breaking the rules. An example is the service toss. Most of the players often break this rule when the player fails to tossing the ball high enough before a strike (Brooks, Aleem & Button, 2013). It is not acceptable when one drop or hit the ball out of the hand since it creates an unfairness by making it easier to generating of more spins. These instances have brought less transparency in these games and it is important for the players to understand them clearly and do the needful to avoid them.

Lack of Transparency and Accountability in the Game

Conclusion

In the recent times, the newspaper has reported on many stories that involve fixing of the matches. According to the report, table tennis has accounted almost to a quarter of all the suspicious alerts on betting that were issued in last year. With the recent issues being discussed on whether the 2012 Olympic men’s finals was fixed, this topic is of extra interest. The fixed matches that were featured here were just a fraction of them. In the past fixing of the matches was regarded as a standard, where the coaches and the officials decided on who would win to tactically and political benefit a nation to get a favor from another. In research done in China, the issue of fixing of the matches is seen as a cultural thing. Moreover, there are issues where the decision makers on who will win a game alter the decision. This has been regarded as one of the corruption allegation that has affected the game of table tennis. In some instances, we have seen a umber making the decision a favor the favorite player. The officials of the clubs or the sponsoring officials pay these individuals heavily to rig on their decision. Nonetheless, there are issues of transparency and accountability that the report has talked about. In the recent times, there are instances where there is less transparency regarding honesty and openness in the game. The players themselves do not follow or obey the rules of the match. Moreover, they may be ignorant to completely grasp the magnitude of their decisions and actions when playing the game. There is need to note the threats that are within this game and ought to be addressed as soon as possible. Sportsmanship is all about playing fair game with no fear or favor, there is need to bring back that culture and a new beginning for the table tennis game that is highly loved.

References

Brooks, G., Aleem, A., & Button, M. (2013). Fraud, corruption and sport. Springer.

https://www.palgrave.com/fr/book/9780230299788 

Chadwick, S. (2014). Still to be fixed: corruption posing new challenges for sport business researchers. Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, 4(1).

https://tvn.sagepub.com/content/15/8/746.abstract 

Chappelet, J. L. (2015). Autonomy and Governance: Necessary Bedfellows in the Fight against   Corruption in Sport. Global Corruption Report 2015: Sport.

https://www.transparency.cz/wp-content/uploads/Global-Corruption-Report-Sport-2016.pdf 

Guay, M. P. (2013). Game, Set, Watched: Governance, Social Control and Surveillance in Professional Tennis.

https://search.ndltd.org/search.php?q=subject%3A%22Bio-power%22 

Haberfeld, M. R., & Sheehan, D. (2014). Match-fixing in International Sports. Springer.

https://www.springer.com/br/book/9783319025810 

Hwang, G. (2016). Understanding Sport Corruption: An Examination of People’s Perceptions  Toward Corruptions. Psychology, 6(4), 250-257.

https://www.davidpublisher.org/Public/uploads/Contribute/5721ca380035b.pdf 

Jetter, M., & Walker, J. K. (2015). Game, set, and match: Do women and men perform differently in competitive situations?. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 119, 96-108.

https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/publications/game-set-and-match-do-women-and-men-perform-differently-in-competitive-situations%28750e8549-4a1d-4915-9406-2e922178f925%29/export.html 

Kulczycki, W., & Koenigstorfer, J. (2016). Why sponsors should worry about corruption as a  mega sport event syndrome. European Sport Management Quarterly, 1-30.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/16184742.2016.1188839?data-src=recsys&journalCode=resm20 

Masters, A. (2015). Corruption in sport: From the playing field to the field of policy. Policy and   Society, 34(2), 111-123.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/14494035/34/2 

Munt, V. (2015). Game, Set, Match: Sports and the Future of Diplomacy.

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1557&context=cc_etds_theses 

Pilon, M. (2015). The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World’s   Favorite Board Game. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Monopolists-Obsession-Scandal-Behind-Favorite/dp/1608199630 

Qingmin, Z. (2013). Sports diplomacy: The Chinese experience and perspective. The Hague  Journal of Diplomacy, 8(3-4), 211-233.

https://sportdiplomacy.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/sports-diplomacy-a-chinese-perspective/ 

Rodenberg, R. M., & Feustel, E. D. (2014). Forensic sports analytics: detecting   and predicting match-fixing in tennis. Journal of Prediction Markets,8(1).

https://econpapers.repec.org/article/bucjpredm/ 

Shearer, D. (2014). To Play Ball, Not Make War: Sports, Diplowmacy and Soft Power. Harvard International Review, 36(1), 53.

https://hir.harvard.edu/to-play-ball-not-make-war/ 

Wilson, E. (2016). Love Game: A History of Tennis, from Victorian Pastime to Global Phenomenon. University of Chicago Press.

https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo23508263.html 

Yücel, A. S., Korkmaz, M., & Çoban, F. (2013). The Analysis of Collective Efficacy Perceptions of Athletes Playing in Table Tennis Leagues In Turkey in Terms of Some Variables.

https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/xmlui/handle/11508/8175?locale-attribute=en