Cricketers hold the key to ensure corruption doesn't engulf the game ©Getty
On a hot October afternoon in 2017, an Indian national - let us call him Gautam - landed at Harare International Airport. With his visa pre-arranged through the Harare Metropolitan Cricket Association it took little time to clear the immigration desk, and after collecting his luggage he was received by an official from the HMCA who was eager to hear his ideas.
Some 400 kilometres away in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe were preparing for a two-match Test series against the West Indies. While this rare case of the national team playing home Tests was a reason for cheer - two years later they have yet to play another - behind the scenes cricket in Zimbabwe was in a desperate state. Salaries to players and staff were regularly delayed, sometimes by months, and regional organisations like the HMCA were getting by on scraps. In this bleak environment, Gautam's suggestions for how they might create new streams of revenue sounded appealing.
One of them, which he laid out to other members of the HMCA administration over the course of an informal barbecue, was to finance a new Twenty20 league. If they could get it televised and attract some household names to participate, the financial input could be a lifeline for the HMCA.
Such exciting promises must have blurred the minds of any dubious officials, perhaps shutting out the urge for caution. Had they done some due diligence on Gautam, they would have seen his name among those investigated at Dhaka Gladiators in 2013, when the franchise's captain Mohammad Ashraful was banned for match-fixing in the Bangladesh Premier League. The tribunal who oversaw the process found Gautam not guilty, but both the ICC and the Bangladesh Cricket Board said they were "surprised and disappointed" with the outcome of the probe, which the ICC felt had been botched.
During his time in Harare, Gautam would explore another potential line of 'business' - more on that shortly - and test the waters further with regards to holding a T20 tournament. As part of a consortium, he managed to set up a conference call with a high-ranking Zimbabwe Cricket official about expanding the T20 league proposal into a concept that the governing body, who at the time were around USD 20-million in debt, could buy into.
Unfortunately for Gautam, but fortunately for the game, this is where his exploration of Zimbabwe ended. Listening to Gautam and his consortium during a Skype conference call, the ZC official became suspicious. The details of the proposed league were vague. It all sounded a bit too good to be true. "Thank you, gentlemen," he said at the end of the call. "I'll take this to my board and get back to you."
Instead he called the ICC's Anti-Corruption Unit. Their response made his heart jump. "Do you know that one of the individuals you have just told us about has indirectly made an approach to your Test captain?"
Gautam had been busy during his time in Harare.
The ACU's reach is only within the domain of cricket and all they can do is keep suspicious individuals at arm's length ©Getty
The story of these misadventures in Zimbabwe offer some crucial insights into cricket's biggest challenge in the week when the game