The unexplained death of Pakistani cricket coach Bob Woolmer earlier this year shook the world of cricket to its foundations. This sordid affair throws up the broader question of ethics in the sporting world as a whole. With a mix of original interviews and archive footage, Sport’s Dirty Secrets uncovers 18 of the most audacious scandals to hit sport over the last 100 years, ultimately asking how it all went wrong.
In the first of two programmes, Peter Swan, the ex-Sheffield Wednesday defender who threw not only a football game but his entire career for the princely sum of £50, speaks openly about the price he has since paid; Britain’s Henry Cooper revisits that wet night in 1963 when he almost dealt Cassius Clay (later Mohammad Ali) a knockout blow; veteran ice-skating commentator Barry Davies reports on how life proved stranger than fiction in the Tonya Harding/ Nancy Kerrigan story; and for the first time on UK television, international racing champs Jacques Villeneuve and Damon Hill reveal exactly what they think of the controversial tactics employed by their arch nemesis, Michael Schumacher. Concludes tomorrow.
Monday 28 May 2007, Channel 4, 11.20pm
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