POOR old Stuart Broad.

He's the one that seems to have been forgotten in the mire that our dear old sport of cricket has been dragged through.

Not since Hansie Cronje was disgraced as captain of the South African team has cricket had to endure such a torrid and debilitating examination of its credibility.

But that in itself should cast the shock and incredulity from everyone's thought process.

Match-fixing, bribery and corruption have all happened before in what can surely no longer be described as the gentleman's game.

It's happened before and it will probably happen again, such is the way of life in sports these days.

We could hark back to the good old days, but it more than likely happened then as well, and probably on a more regular basis, too, it's just we didn't have such newspapers as the News of the World so happy and willing to uncover such an impressive sting operation then.

There are big bucks in all sports, and people will do all they can to lay their hands on every last penny possible, allegedly.

I was disappointed to hear the news of the Pakistan team allegedly being caught up in this spot-betting sham.

I have to keep emphasising that it is only an alleged incident, though it's difficult to make a case for them when you see how long the first no-ball was delivered, and exactly on schedule.

And when you drag up what would normally be trivialities as no-balls, something the majority of us would be hard pushed to place a bet on, you need look no further than the number of dropped catches during the series before you start casting your own aspersions on what could be a huge scandal.

But in all of this, one man must be feeling that a slime-filled balloon has burst above his head.

On Friday Stuart Broad wrote his name into the history books by being a part of a record-breaking eighth wicket stand with Jonathan Trott. He racked up his first ever Test match century, eventually falling for an epic 169 in what looked to have been one of the most sensational knocks of all time.

Now though, all that is likely to be forgotten, and the history books rewritten with a footnote which will read something along the lines of: *made during the Pakistan spot-fixing scandal of 2010.

He doesn't deserve that.

He has proved to be a superb bowler with an assuredness with the bat as well and that knock on Friday would have done him the world of good, for about a day or so.

What will it do to his confidence now? He had what he thought was the innings of his life, and now all he is probably thinking is 'did the bowlers really give it their all? Were they trying to get me out or just going through the motions?'

It's such a shame for the guy, who got the recognition his work deserved and it has now been overshadowed by the allegations against the Pakistan team.

Hopefully it won't have too much of an impact on him, after all, it matters not if anyone was really trying to get him out, the balls were still angling their way towards his stumps at pretty quick speeds and he had to use his whole repertoire to make his impressive century. So what if there's a footnote in the history books, at least he's in them for all the right reasons.

There is rightly outrage at what has appeared in the tabloid newspapers, but while we all sift through the wreckage of our beloved sport, spare a thought for Broad.