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Dear God, let's do a deal...

I love cricket, in fact I love it with a passion that I do not even reserve for my wife. Deeply in my memories are moments that were so sensational, so tense and even so dangerous that it was life threatening. Look back at the semifinal during the last World Cup, between South Africa and Australia. With 3 or 4 overs to go, SA was out of the WC, on their way home.

To describe to you how I felt at that time is easy, as you have all had that feeling that makes commiting suicide acceptable. Your legs are lame, your brain without thought, and life not worth living. You know, fellow cricket lover, you know because you have been there before, many times.

Minutes later that man Klussener, with raw power, and guts that I thought only I had, fuelled by the do-or-die spirits of all our ancestors, launched an attack that would have made Operation Desert Storm look like a game. He brought us right back into the game and on the brink of victory. Let me be very honest today, I know about this onslaught and fight back because I listened to the commentary, and watched the replays on TV. I never watched it live, I could not... the tension during those memorable minutes bent my body into a shape that made it impossible to sit up straight, forget watching. The electric shocks that went through my body with every Klusener blow, paralized me to the extent that I could not see, and to be totally honest, my eyes were looking up to where I was pleading with God....."Please God, let us win, Please God be with my country and my fellow South African, Please God, for my sake let us win, as I will die if we don't."

God did not listen to me that day, he did not grant me my wish, for God does not do deals. God though decided to let me live, only just, but I made it. That game, and specially the last couple of overs of that game, represented both the most exiting moments and at the same time probably the saddest part of my life. It is not fair, in fact it is inhuman, for God to mix so much pleasure and excitement with so much of pain and suffering, into such a short space of time.

Yes my fellow cricket lover, I know that my story does not even come close to your most exciting and your saddest moment in cricket. I believe you and I respect you for loving my favourite sport more that I love it.

I have been following the match fixing enquiry in South Africa and all over the cricket world very closeley, and this brings me to the purpose of my letter. Please my friends, I need your help....I need to do a deal with God, and I need you to help me talk to Him. I need you to help me ask him to stop this punishment and this pain and this bleeding, in fact I need my life back. Right now I am dying, slowly and painfully, the cancer is spreading with each and every new accusation, and by now the sad knowledge that where there is smoke there is fire.

Please God, stop this pain, Please God, do not let me hate Cronje, Gibbs, Williams, Malik, Azzaruddin, Dev, Akram and the many other names that will be added to this list. Dear God I have heard that Tendulkar, Pollock and Rhodes, and surely many others are not part of this cancer. Thank you God for that. Please let them loose on the playing fields of the world so that their brilliance can make me forget the pain that I feel.

Please God, do this deal with me, with us, let the power of the brilliance of Tendulkar, Pollock and Rhodes multiply, that the effect of it instantly stop the pain and the bleeding. Please God, I deserve it, not because of the money I have spent but because of the huge part of my life that I have given theses match fixers, free of charge. Yes god, THAT hurts, free of charge. You know how many hours, days and months of my sleep that I have given them.

And then, God, if you can grant me one more wish.....do you think you can place people in charge of our cricket unions that have intelligence, integrity and love cricket for the sake of their countries, the sport, the players, and us, the fans?

My fellow cricketer I am often reminded that cricket is just a game, but you and I know it is not. It is our life. It was wrong for me to make a deal with God to make South Africa beat Australia in the World Cup semifinal. Surely it can not be wrong this time, although I am asking for much more this time.