Following a heart-wrenching monologue on TV3’s 3rd Degree, in which he admitted to his history of cheating through match-fixing, the nation’s media has seen fit to extend a rare hand of forgiveness to former Black Cap Lou Vincent, who they believe is “genuinely remorseful” for making New Zealand’s second-most popular sport interesting.
“Listening to him last night, it actually brought a tear to my eye,” wrote New Zealand Herald sports columnist Chris Rattue. “I think Vincent knows what he’s done. He knows that, for some months now, he’s made cricket actually interesting, and to fans of the sport, that’s usually a pretty inexcusable action.”
On 3rd Degree, Vincent appeared emotional as he recounted his wrongdoing. He acknowledged that his actions had helped to publicly associate cricket “with images of shady organizations, luxurious lifestyles, James Bond-esque liaisons to collect bags of cash, mystery and drama. These things are all extremely interesting and exciting, and have no place in our sport.”
“I hope that, by my taking responsibility for these actions, and warning the next generation of players about the dangers of this activity, we can all shift our attentions and get back to what cricket is really about: watching a bunch of men dressed in white stand around for hours on end and occasionally catch a ball.”
Public reaction to Vincent’s apology has been unusually forgiving, with a majority of New Zealanders saying they didn’t feel he was “a bad guy.”
“Yeah, look, I mean you can’t defend what he did,” said 41-year-old Wellington cricket fan Bruce Sterling. “I’ve got a son who’s really into cricket, he follows the Black Caps, really admires those guys, and it can be hard to, you know, reassure him, when all he’s seeing in the news is images of cricket as this really interesting sport, where there’s danger and money, and excitement, and that sort of thing.
“But I think he understands that it’s just a few bad apples, and for the most part, cricketers’ lives are really boring, and the sport is actually quite dull. I want him to hold onto that, and I think what Lou’s doing now probably helps that, a little bit.”
But despite a relatively soft public sentiment towards Vincent, it is still likely that he’ll receive a lifetime ban from the sport by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
Head of the ECB, David Collier, said that while he appreciated Vincent’s remorse, what he’d done was “extremely serious” and could not be treated lightly.
“The fact of the matter is, those of us who love the sport, who live and breathe it, we’ve worked very hard to cement its legacy as a game that is unbelievably boring to watch and almost as excruciating to play,” he said. “If even for a moment, Lou Vincent has jeopardised that, and for this, he must be punished.”