The confusion over the alleged gambling corruption involving three Pakistan cricketers is sorting itself out.

During the England v Pakistan test match at Lord’s two weeks ago, it is alleged that deliberate no-balls were bowled.

It seems that the News of the World newspaper paid a middle-man 200,000-plus dollars, in return for advance knowledge of the no-balls, which could then be bet upon.

The breakthrough for getting a conviction came with the discovery by Scotland Yard officers of marked notes, allegedly used in the pay off, amongst the belongings of team captain Salman Butt.

Never before, in cricket match-fixing cases, have investigators successfully located the cash used in the deal. Most transactions are usually quickly laundered in a convenient casino or similar.

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Pakistan’s high commissioner to the United Kingdom, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, is incensed, complaining that the three players were the victims of a set-up.

And so they were, of course — although that doesn’t make their actions any less corrupt.

What was the point of the whole exercise? Will it act as a deterrent to other players when they see these three banned for life?

Would that justify the deceitful actions of the newspaper?

What is the answer? How to get gambling out of sport?

Only a change in human nature could do it.

Could we achieve a new generation of human beings who are not greedy?

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OK then, what do suicide bombers and corrupt cricket players have in common?

Yes, they are two evils — both of which can only be eliminated by a change of heart in the entire human race — a process slow and painful and, most would say, impossible.

Can we only eliminate Islamic suicide bombers by eliminating Islam? Is that possible?

Yes, but only by converting Muslims one by one – hundreds of millions of them.

Humanly speaking impossible – so impossible that to suggest it sounds like madness.

But nothing – NOTHING — is impossible to God.