Table Tennis Corruption: Betting And Its Impact On The Sport

Betting in Table Tennis

Discuss about the Table Tennis Corruption.

Sports have been an important part of the living, but corruption in sports have ruined the real meaning of the sports and has dropped down the levels of many games. Sports are big phenomena in today’s era. Corruption in sports has resulted in the real changes in the essence of the games, hence has to lead to a decrease in the curiosity of the fans to follow their sportsmen and appreciate their work.  It is a divergent phenomenon which is very important part of life and the human values are connected with it. In this essay will discuss the corruption in the Table tennis. The game Table tennis also includes the factors such as the doping, match-fixing, and betting.  It should be matter of concern and not of permission (Bakin & Smirnov, 2012). Table tennis is governed around the globe by the organization International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). The organisation ITTF was founded in the year 1926 and is responsible for the regulation of the game. New challenges are being faced by the sports persons in the Table tennis game. The involvement of the sportspersons into the drugs or the doping business results in losing the interest of the sports fans in their favourite sports Table tennis.

In this essay will discuss about the Betting corruption in the Table tennis sport which results to challenge the confidence of the public in the integrity of the contest, which is essentially contrary to the spirit of activity and is to be eradicating at any costs.

Therefore it is revealed betting corruption in Table tennis sports is becoming a huge problem which is affecting the game and the players in a great way (Mazanov & Connor, 2010). After researching various cases all over the world in Table Tennis sports the main reason behind the corruption and their social costs are analysed.

Betting is known as accepting, laying or making a gamble of money or the other structure of the economic speculation. It  also includes, devoid of limitation, actions commonly referred to as the sports betting such as the unchanging and successively odds, totalisator games, betting exchange, live betting and spread betting that is offered by the operators resulting into the sports betting. Betting, act as an integrity threat to the Table tennis sport. The various corruption cases of table-tennis and criminal gangs launder involved more than 80million euro in a year from betting in which fans get disappointed by the doping, fixing and corruption that has been rampant in the game (Sindik, 2014).  For the better understanding of the betting corruption in the Table tennis game will discuss the few scandals which occurred in the Table Tennis game.

Scandals in Table Tennis Betting

Including the different fraudulent activities related to the betting are divergent to the law and is correlated to the match-fixing and structured crime. Online betting and Internet gambling generate huge profits that are normally outside the control of existing management legislation and consequently a chance for the criminal activity. The data in the Australian Betting Statistics showed that in the year 2014-2015 Australian lost almost 30% in the sports due to the Betting (Maennig, 2002). 

Any support, participation or promotion of, any type of the betting related to an occasion or opposition includes betting with the other person,  on the result, outcome, progress, conduct of such competition or event. This regulation applies to all the form of the betting which is related to the competition or the events, in which the participant  directly participates.

The betting in Table tennis was observed in the case of the corruption scandal held in Singapore regarding table-tennis. The president of the Singapore table tennis association(STTA)  for almost twenty years who was also the member of the Singaporean parliament who use to look after the citizen’s interests  held responsible for the breaking  of law. The (CPIB) corrupt practices investigation bureau of Singapore received the various objections about the president whose name is Choo Wee Khiang was paying bills with STTA’s money. (Martinent & Decret, 2014)

Many of his complaints were carried out by the CPIB investigation and player told that Liu Zhong, paid Choo around 1000 dollars for representing Singapore in the international tournaments. It was also told that in the year 2003 and 2004 Choo also received 1200 dollars from the national coach of China for approving the use of two training facilities in China. Soon after, it is also revealed that together with ex-high performance manager of STTA was also responsible for paying Luo Jie almost 6500 us dollars for a work that he never did (BaÅ„kosz & Szumielewicz, 2014). This was not the first time that happened STTA’s president was found many times involved in such kind of issues, some facts also come to light that for two years he was imprisoned and had to pay around 7000 us dollars as a fine for helping a friend to cheat in a finance company and to get the loan of almost 6400000 US dollar.  Because of these frauds made by him, Choo’s trial has been postponed twice during the month at the request of his lawyer. In case, if the Choo was found to be guilty then he has to pay the 70000 US dollars fine and has to be in jail for five years at a charge. For china, table tennis is a very serious game, and it is referred as national ball there, china is very secretive about the rules and regulation between the players, and are very suspicious and dishonest about the punishments.

ITTF’s Efforts to Address Table Tennis Corruption

In 2012, Chinese table tennis player named Zhang Jike beat his competitor and also his teammate Ma Long in a seven-set match in the championship round of world cup in Dusseldorf, Germany. He is an awesome talent, one of the best players in the history of table-tennis. He has also won the last two tournaments in the world championship and also took gold in the London Olympics in 2012. But soon after his victory in Dusseldorf drag more headlines to Betting than what he has done before. Jike celebrated his victory by winning heavily and by kicking through a couple cardboard barriers of including the names of the tournaments advertisers, and removing his shirt and throwing it in the crowd (BaÅ„kosz & Szumielewicz, 2014). It was all PG- rated. Jimi Hendrix lighting his guitar on fire in Monterey and the tournament’s jury decided that this was inappropriate behaviour for an athlete in a sport unassuming as table tennis. They plunder Jike of his entire purse about$56000.

The celebrations for his victory and ensuing absurd punishment made headlines not only in china but around the world. They have to face the most press table tennis has ever got in the recent years (Numerato, 2009).  The entire incident serves as a figure of speech for the table tennis establishments and the deep rooted and self-destructive tendency towards small time thinking.

According to the jury, sports are supposed to be exciting and fun emotions are supposed to run so high that they occasionally spill over. It is an inappropriate fine but $56000 is a lot of money in Betting. This table tennis game should be treated with respect and dignity (Rodenberg & Kaburakis, 2013).

In order to ensure safety and also for the purpose of safeguarding the main integrity of table tennis, the following rules has been adopted by the ITTF  (i) carefully prohibiting any kind of conduct which might impact the improper outcome of the competitions and the events (ii) to ensure the establishing of a  mechanism of sanction and enforcement for all those concerned who, by their corrupt conduct, tries to put the game and its integrity at serious risk. The association of the ITTF is fully committed to making sure that all kinds of the practical steps, as well as the procedures, are adopted so that the game is played and the integrity and respect of the game are sustained.The Continental Federations and the National Associations are also to put in place various and similar rules and strict regulations so that the game remains away from falling into any bad hands.

Any kind of the allegations or any type of suspicion of the violation of 6.2 is required to reported to the association of ITTF for serious investigation and also possible punishment is ensured to be given to the wrong doers. The association ay also blacklists all such people who take the help of the wrong to ensure their participation in the tournaments which are inaugurated by the ITTF. The wrong doings are carefully scrutinized and the guilty are tried to be found at the earliest and then the appropriate action is taken against them so that the game is always placed in safer hands. The ITTF have got its own discretion, where the association  deems and provides the punishments to the guilty ones as per their rules and regulations. The decisions are taken by the competent authorities under strict outcomes so that in future no other attempt which is similar to it gets repeated.

It is vital that the result of the sporting competitions is completely dependent and also based comprehensively on the merits basis and the competing spirits of the competitors are maintained. Any kind of the corruption which may undermine the people’s confidence refer the integrity of the concerned sporting contest is strictly handled and is considered as fundamentally contrary refer the true spirit of the sportspersons. Such kinds of the thinking’s and acts are eradicated at each step by the association. The association is often very friendly but at times where there exists the requirement to ensure to maintain the dignity of the game, the rules, and the activities which are performed by the association are really harsh ones.

Conclusion:

There are many scandals which are revealed every day and in it, many of the coaches are also involved. It seems like they are playing only for their self-motive and the money and not for the pride of their nation. Sports player in the world has been left disappointed by the recent doping, fixing, corruption that has been rampant in many games. In an interview conducted last year, the famous sports person Lance Armstrong who had already won seven Tour de France titles admitted that he use to take the performance enhancement drugs that helped him to win these titles (Lastra, Bell, & Bond, 2016).

In every game, whether it is cricket, tennis, boxing, soccer, table-tennis corruption is involved.  According to these two personalities Paoli and Donate (2013), there are four trends which have affected sports activities medicalization by which the human problems and conditions come to be defined and thus become the matter of medical study.  Secondly, politicization and commercialization where sport have become the business to trade, worth more than US$141 billion annually (BaÅ„kosz, 2012).

References

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Lastra, R., Bell, P., & Bond, C. (2016). Sports Betting-Motivated Corruption in Australia: An Under-Studied Phenomenon. IJSSR, 4(1), 61.

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Martinent, G. & Decret, J. (2014). Motivational Profiles Among Young Table-Tennis Players in Intensive Training Settings: A Latent Profile Transition Analysis. Journal Of Applied Sport Psychology, 27(3), 268-287.

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Numerato, D. (2009). The Media and Sports Corruption: An Outline of Sociological Understanding.International Journal Of Sport Communication, 2(3), 261-273.

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