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Fixed!: Cash and Corruption in Cricket
How illegal cash is destroying the fabric of cricket Who killed Hansie Cronje and Bob Woolmer? Have players from the national squad been involved in match-fixing? Is suspending IPL teams punishment enough for erring franchise owners? Should betting be made legal in India as advised by the Lodha Committee? From S. Sreesanth to Chris Cairns, Lalit Modi to N. Srinivasan, Hamid Cassim to Tinku Mandi, Shantanu Guha Ray examines the allegations of corruption against players, cricket administrators and bookies alike. He interviews the myriad people who linger in the shadows of players' dressing rooms - the middle men, agents, 'friends' of IPL franchise owners - placing bets on games and enticing cricketers to reveal inside information for money, sex or, worse, fear for their lives. Also under the spotlight are the roles of the police and the government, who have, at best, made patchy efforts to stem the rot. Fixed!: Cash and Corruption in Cricket is an incisive, unflinching look at the underbelly of what once used to be a gentleman's game.
- GenresSportsNonfiction
228 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 10, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 27, 2025
I read Fixed! in 2017, a time when I still treated cricket like a sacred ritual. You know the feeling—friends gathering around a dusty TV, your heart in your mouth on the final over, your grandmother peeking in with snacks and quiet superstition. For many of us, cricket wasn’t a game. It was a belief system, a moral compass, a collective fever dream.
And then this book came along.
Shantanu Guha Ray didn’t just lift the veil—he tore it clean off.
Fixed!: Cash and Corruption in Cricket is not just an exposé. It’s an unmasking. What Guha Ray delivers is a meticulous investigation into the murky, back-alley economics of match-fixing, spot-fixing, betting syndicates, underworld linkages, and silent conspiracies involving players, administrators, bookies, and powerful fixers hiding behind team blazers and cocktail smiles.
The writing is sharp, crisp, and sometimes angry—but always factual. It doesn’t meander. It stings. Guha Ray’s journalistic acumen ensures that the book isn’t a conspiracy screed. Every claim is anchored in testimony, interviews, and trail-following. You feel the weight of his research, and with each chapter, your belief system starts wobbling like a tailender against a bouncer.
This isn’t just about Mohammad Amir or Sreesanth or the IPL’s now-hushed scandals. It’s about the commodification of trust. It’s about what happens when your gods are caught counting cash under the temple stairs.
Reading it in 2017 felt like watching your childhood being repossessed. I remember looking at the screen during a random India vs. Sri Lanka match and feeling… different. Suspicious. Hollow. Was that dropped catch accidental? Was that run-out real? The worst part wasn’t the corruption—it was what it did to the viewer’s gaze.
Cricket had always been about uncertainty—but now it felt premeditated. And that's a psychological rupture this book makes you live through.
Structurally, the book moves fast. It has the pace of a T20 and the depth of a five-day thriller. There’s no hand-holding, no sentimental fluff—Guha Ray trusts his reader to feel the anger and process the grief. There are moments when it reads like a crime novel, other times like a boardroom drama. And always, there’s the echo of broken hearts in the bleachers.
Comparatively, it brings to mind Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby—not in style, but in the intensity of sports as personal religion. It also shares investigative DNA with Ed Hawkins' Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy and the outrage of Playing It My Way—not in Sachin’s polished prose, but in what his silences didn’t say.
But Fixed! is Indian cricket’s cracked mirror. It forces you to stare.
And yet—somehow—it doesn't tell you to stop loving the game. Maybe that’s what makes it haunting. It leaves you at the crease, stripped of illusions, asking if belief can survive betrayal.
And then this book came along.
Shantanu Guha Ray didn’t just lift the veil—he tore it clean off.
Fixed!: Cash and Corruption in Cricket is not just an exposé. It’s an unmasking. What Guha Ray delivers is a meticulous investigation into the murky, back-alley economics of match-fixing, spot-fixing, betting syndicates, underworld linkages, and silent conspiracies involving players, administrators, bookies, and powerful fixers hiding behind team blazers and cocktail smiles.
The writing is sharp, crisp, and sometimes angry—but always factual. It doesn’t meander. It stings. Guha Ray’s journalistic acumen ensures that the book isn’t a conspiracy screed. Every claim is anchored in testimony, interviews, and trail-following. You feel the weight of his research, and with each chapter, your belief system starts wobbling like a tailender against a bouncer.
This isn’t just about Mohammad Amir or Sreesanth or the IPL’s now-hushed scandals. It’s about the commodification of trust. It’s about what happens when your gods are caught counting cash under the temple stairs.
Reading it in 2017 felt like watching your childhood being repossessed. I remember looking at the screen during a random India vs. Sri Lanka match and feeling… different. Suspicious. Hollow. Was that dropped catch accidental? Was that run-out real? The worst part wasn’t the corruption—it was what it did to the viewer’s gaze.
Cricket had always been about uncertainty—but now it felt premeditated. And that's a psychological rupture this book makes you live through.
Structurally, the book moves fast. It has the pace of a T20 and the depth of a five-day thriller. There’s no hand-holding, no sentimental fluff—Guha Ray trusts his reader to feel the anger and process the grief. There are moments when it reads like a crime novel, other times like a boardroom drama. And always, there’s the echo of broken hearts in the bleachers.
Comparatively, it brings to mind Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby—not in style, but in the intensity of sports as personal religion. It also shares investigative DNA with Ed Hawkins' Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy and the outrage of Playing It My Way—not in Sachin’s polished prose, but in what his silences didn’t say.
But Fixed! is Indian cricket’s cracked mirror. It forces you to stare.
And yet—somehow—it doesn't tell you to stop loving the game. Maybe that’s what makes it haunting. It leaves you at the crease, stripped of illusions, asking if belief can survive betrayal.
June 27, 2018
Wow!!!
This book revealed a lot many secrets than I wanted to know.
I am not exactly a keen observer of cricket and the many formats available, however I am aware of the events through reading the newspapers and keeping myself updated (not regularly though!!)
This book is a real eye-opener, at times I wish I didn't set my eyes on the book, but then I am happy I read it, at least the next time I watch cricket I will set my expectations accordingly.
The rot is still continuing, I wonder when people at the helm get it in their heads to run an organization sans their own selfish interests or succumbing to outside pressure. The integrity of the game is compromised. It would be apt to quote David Hume, "The corruption of the best things gives rise to the worst".
This small paperback packs a tight punch, thank you Shantanu Guha Ray!!
Must read for all cricket fans.
This book revealed a lot many secrets than I wanted to know.
I am not exactly a keen observer of cricket and the many formats available, however I am aware of the events through reading the newspapers and keeping myself updated (not regularly though!!)
This book is a real eye-opener, at times I wish I didn't set my eyes on the book, but then I am happy I read it, at least the next time I watch cricket I will set my expectations accordingly.
The rot is still continuing, I wonder when people at the helm get it in their heads to run an organization sans their own selfish interests or succumbing to outside pressure. The integrity of the game is compromised. It would be apt to quote David Hume, "The corruption of the best things gives rise to the worst".
This small paperback packs a tight punch, thank you Shantanu Guha Ray!!
Must read for all cricket fans.
December 18, 2021
A sort of compendium of all known cases of fixing in world cricket in the 21st century. But, having watched "Inside Edge" and read Boria's better book on Indian cricket off the field Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians: The On and Off the Field Story of Cricket in India and Beyond , didnt find anything surprising.
Still, a decent read by itself.
Still, a decent read by itself.
June 13, 2018
Brilliantly compiled
A well researched documentary that shows the true face of Indian cricket and it's administrators. The author has painstakingly put many hours of research in this well compiled book
A well researched documentary that shows the true face of Indian cricket and it's administrators. The author has painstakingly put many hours of research in this well compiled book
April 20, 2016
A racy read which covers the history of corruption in cricket -be it the cronje affair or pakistan spot fixing or the lalit modi saga. There are no solutions or insights provided at the end but what makes the book work is meticulous research done in interacting with police investigators and bookies. Lots of typos and factual errors could have been avoided. (for instance,Cronje is wrongly mentioned as a fine spin bowler and Sachin's wicket in WC2011 semis is mistakenly attributed to the bowling of Wahab Riaz.)Overall,a readable primer on this topic.
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March 21, 2016Rating: 6/10
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews