“One
of the greatest attractions of sport is the lack of a script and abundance of
spirit”
The game which is considered as the religion in India has been struck
with a major blow with the recent IPL spot fixing issue.
Referring to the present case of three Rajasthan Royal players involved
in spot fixing issue. I wondered what could be the real motive behind such a
shameful work. Greed seems to be an obvious one, but the possibility of duress
cannot be ignored as well. With the involvement of underworld in the gambling
and fixing, it would be wise to look at all the angles. I also suggest that harsh punishments should be given to the culprits. It is really odd to see that Md. Azharuddin who was convicted in match fixing is now serving as MP from Moradabad.
A news channel
reported that some other players were also approached by the bookies but the
players overturned their offers. On one side it felt great to know that these
players are honest but on the other side it raised a certain amount of doubt
towards their morality. My point is, if they knew about such dealings then why
they didn’t report it? According to the International Cricket Council’s code of
conduct, “players and/or team officials shall be required to report to their
Captain and/or Team Manager or to a senior Board official or to the Anti
Corruption and Security Unit any approach made to them by a bookmaker or any
other corrupt approach or knowledge of such approach made to any other player
or team official.”
While most of the cricket lovers are still enjoying the people watching
their favourite batsman hitting boundaries and bowlers getting wickets. There
are few activists who are working there to clean the game. Cricket was
always supposed to be fun and untainted with the lights of corruption, betting, politics but now it is dominated by it. Most of the board members of
BCCI belong to a political background, which is a rare case for any country and
the worst part is that still BCCI is not accountable to the parliament of
India.
Well the problem is not only related to India and Pakistan, “If anyone
thinks Pakistan players are the only ones involved in fixing then they're
kidding themselves”, Chappell wrote for Inside cricket.
ICC has made an anti corruption and security unit (ACSU) but that unit
has done almost nothing and their contribution in catching the match fixing and
spot fixing cases is nil. ICC spends less than 1% of the profit for ACSU unit which
is very low in contrast to the International Tennis Federation (the world
governing body of tennis) which spends 30 per cent of its worldwide development
fund on its Tennis Integrity unit.
Having said all that it should be noted that the condition is not that worse
as it seems, there are players who are giving their heart and soul to the game
to win for their team for their fans which cannot be ignored. It is the time
that these cricketers should step us against such malpractices.
It is true that there are some setbacks but the spirit of the game is
still alive. So, it still disgusts a cricket lover, if someone says that the game was fixed.
