Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Scandals will not lessen the IPL fans' that was published in Newsband

Scandals will not lessen the IPL fans

The spot fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League has shocked many. Many players have been considering sport as the means to just make money by hook or crook. This has given birth to all types of shady dealings of this kind. There is utter lack of transparency in the IPL.

The arrests of S. Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan, Ajit Chandila and a group of bookies may just be the tip of the iceberg. In India, betting on sport other than horse racing is illegal. But in Indian cricket, outrageously large sums of money are changing hands each time a big game is played.

A major clean up operation is required if cricket in India is to retain the loyalty of its fans.

Betting has dragged the game down. IPL is become a cocktail of bidding, gambling, late night parties and all these in the presence of women dancing with minimal clothing. IPL culture is basically a page 3 culture where glamour is more important than grace, cash is more important than character. It is just like a horse game trade where players are bought and sold, expecting something decent out of it is too much.

The best a governing body like BCCI can do is to lay down a code of conduct, enforce anti-doping measures and restrict access to players during matches. It cannot completely control the personal lives of the players and monitor or prevent betting or match fixing. That is the job of the law enforcement agencies.

The main flaw is that the bookies and players are caught in the act but no action is taken on the one who is actually supplying the money.

Recently it was sickening and saddening to see the pictures in the newspaper, where Sreesanth was made to wear a black mask and taken to police station, and his effigies were burnt - as if he was a hardened criminal. All the news channels lost no time in passing their verdicts. It’s disturbing to see we as a nation ready to pass instant verdicts without concrete evidences and before the law has taken its course. Even if he is cleared, the damage has been done, and he'll have to live out the rest of his life under a heavy cloud. That’s really sad!

When did this betting scandal crop up? During the South African visit to India, Ali Bacher, the South African Board President vehemently denied any wrong doing on the part of players and totally defended the purity of the sport. But then Hansie Cronje spoke up and said that betting was true and even the Indian Cricket Board had a part in it and he cannot tell a lie because he was a true Christian. All hell broke loose and the Game lost its lustre. But still the Indian masses did not lose the charm towards the game despite repeated betting scandals breaking up now and then and even reputed players like Azhar and Kapil Dev were named in some of them.

As far as the latest scandal is concerned, the cricket fans will soon forget this and watch the tamasha all over again till another scandal crops up.