Baby I fixed this over. Hit as many runs as you want now. This is exactly what Sreesantha must have been thinking in his mind while bowling with his towel hanging from his waist. And similar must have been the thoughts of the other two Rajasthan Royals cricketers Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila who have been arrested along with more than 10 bookies.
The menace of Spot Fixing has raised its head in the IPL again. Although there were some hints about it the last year (as per some commentators on some of the most popular news channels in India), the players were let go after a short ban. The difference this time is that the accused have been caught red handed and wonder who caught them, the Delhi Police. The Delhi Police have recorded conversation between bookies wherein the names of the accused cricketer have been mentioned several times.
There are a few questions that come to my mind when we hear about such news in the midst of the brouhaha created by a tournament like the IPL. Although the IPL as a concept has been a hit and has proved to be the much needed alternate source of entertainment for the huge segment of Indian populace who are otherwise deprived of any other good source of entertainment apart from the much abused Indian cinema industry that takes pride in naming its industry after some wood or the other.
Here are some questions that come to the mind about the matter of spot fixing
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What is the cause of the instances of match fixing or spot fixing as in this case?
It is not enough to merely catch hold of the culprits this time. It is imperative to find out the reasons that drive a player to accept such payments. Although it is very clear that, if you do the math, it makes economic sense for the players to fix an over to make some easy money. The money may be in the tunes of more than 25% of the players’ full IPL season contract, but economic sense cannot be the only factor that drives such players to take such drastic steps. Sreeshanth in this case has had played on the international level and was even part of the World Cup Winning team (although he was a sitting duck for most part of the tournament). So, if the match fixing and spot fixing are to be get rid of, then the root cause of the problem needs to be found and dealt with (maybe some MBA grads can help the police and the BCCI with some Root Cause Analysis).
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How is the Delhi Police able to find the time to go after bookies and cricketers to track their conversation to find cases of match fixing and spot fixing.
Is it not amazing to see the Delhi Police working with such efficiency. How come they are able to make preemptive decisions about tracking the phone calls of people against whom no previous complaints have been made (at least these things have not come into public domain yet).
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Where does the Delhi Police’s expertise go when they are faced with the task of making the female population of the city feel safe.
Although it does not seem to be the correct platform to raise such a question, I could not stop myself from doing it. Is it not a black spot on the face of the country and the national capital that the female population in the country and the national capital in particular is not safe, even in broad day light? Why is the police not able to instill such faith in the minds of half of the country’s population about their safety? There are so many questions that come to my mind while writing about this issue. Maybe I will write a new post at some other platform.
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Does the link of spot fixing break after these 3 players have been found and thrown behind bars?
I don’t think so. There must be other players (I don’t mean cricketers as player here) involved in the whole game of match fixing and spot fixing that what meets the eye at the first instance. The links of the bookies may be even linked to the politicians that are so fixated with controlling the game of cricket. What does a politician have to do with managing and governing an autonomous sports body in the country. Oh, the M factor comes into play here too. MONEY is what draws politicians to everything just like flies are drawn to filth (I am not comparing the game of cricket to filth here, although the way BCCI runs the cricket in the country may be somewhat of that nature). So, should the police stop by just naming the 3 obvious names of cricketers and the names of some low level bookies?
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How come the IPL team owners bid for players while selecting their team members during the annual cattle auction organized by the BCCI and the common man is not allowed to bet against the success or failure of any team and / or player in any match or series?
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Why not make betting legal in the country, after all paying my hard earned money to go and see matches of teams like Pune Warriors and see them loose every time is just like betting against the loosing horse.
Now, I think the time is write to talk about why betting on the performance of cricket teams and cricketers is banned in the country. If you see the way IPL is run, the backbone of the IPL’s whole structure is the betting done by the team owners. yes it is not bidding but betting in the true sense. All IPL team owners are betting against the skills of the players they bid for. Not only the team owners, the spectators and fans of the teams also bet every time they buy a ticket to go and see the match in the stadium. Why should only the team owners be allowed to bet and bid, why not the general public be allowed to spend their money the way they want to spend it? (Yeah, now the moral question of betting is gambling and it is a menace that can bring whole families and societies down will be raised.) Why should we have double standards in this country that prides on being the biggest democracy?
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Is a life ban on the culprits going to prevent them or other players from playing such tricks again?
This again is a tricky question the BCCI and other governing bodies and the politicians controlling cricket in the country will find difficult to answer. Are match fixing and spot fixing not cases of blatant cheating. Are the players not destroying the trust of the cricket lovers who stop all the activities of their lives to watch their favorite players hit with a wooden bat and bowl with a spherical leather ball? Why not treat it just like any other corruption case, and give the cricketers the same punishment that anyone else engaging in corrupt practices will get by a court of law. Afterall, such activities are recurring only because good examples have not been set. All the cricketers who were found guilty of engaging in match fixing earlier should have faced the court of law and been punished according to Indian Penal Code. Had that been done, such players would have at least thought twice before engaging in spot fixing. Afterall, Sreesanth does not have much cricket left in him to be able to play on the international arena again. Why not make an example out of these 3 players now and avoid such recurrences in future.
I hope such question might have occurred to other cricket lovers as well. Please comment and let us know how you feel. Do you feel betrayed? Do you feel they should be send behind bars for their deeds? Let us know.