The Gentleman's Business

 “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.