CRICKET HITWICKET AGAIN
The arrest of S. Sreesanth is just the tip of the iceberg of match- fixing, black money and book- balancing that has a hold on IPL without any regulation by BCCI
At 2: 30 a. m. on May 16, when officers from the Delhi Police barged into an apartment in Mumbai’s Carter Road to arrest fast bowler S. Sreesanth, an IPL fuse that was lit five years ago finally fizzed its way towards explosion. Ten hours later, a Freudian slip from the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s ( BCCI) chief administrative officer and principal fire- fighter Ratnakar Shetty summed up the problem. “The BCCI,” Shetty told the television cameras, “has a zero- tolerance policy towards anti- corruption.”
The latest spot- fixing scandal is now charting its own unrestrained course. The Delhi Police have alleged that players and bookies are involved in a scam that could be worth many thousand crores. There is talk of gangster Dawood Ibrahim being involved, and there are highly plausible links being drawn with the death of Special Cell inspector Bardish Dutt who was found shot dead on May 11 in a Gurgaon flat with girlfriend Geeta Sharma. But while the various threads will develop over the next few days, slowly unravelling the IPL’s perfect world of packed stadiums, air- kissing celebrities and dancing commentators, it’s time to focus on the elephant in the room.
Created under the banner of ‘ Cricketainment’, IPL was supposed to be a mix of sport, Bollywood, politics and industry. It was punchy. It was sold as a cocktail of everything modern India liked to celebrate. But IPL also brought with it the weeds of corruption that are all around India today— its branches stretching from Union ministers to chief ministers and captains of industry. A world where fixers and middlemen rule, and where independent voices are suppressed or handed official contracts that ensure complicity.
This is not the first time that cricket has been stung— the Mohammad Azharuddin and Hansie Cronje saga of the early 2000s had forced an overhaul in the system and the creation of an Anti- Corruption and Securities Unit. This is not the first time that the IPL has been stung either. Two TV channel exposés over the last three years hinted at how players were being paid black money by some franchises, and how umpires were willing to call no- balls in exchange for cash. The BCCI, instead of treating these incidents as the window into a murky world of corruption and underhand deals, dealt with them as isolated incidents. Those involved were handed slap- on- the- wrist suspensions, and the carnival moved on, leaving behind anyone who was stupid enough to be caught.
Which makes this latest scandal not just a failure of the entire cricket system for being unable to arrest a problem that first manifested 13 years ago, and reared its ugly head several more times, but also an illustration of how the IPL format tests individual integrity, and perhaps even encourages that it be compromised. This dilution of morals emanates from the top down. Former boss Lalit Modi is in self- imposed exile in England after charges of financial irregularity were brought up by Income Tax Department and Enforcement Directorate. The current boss, BCCI chief N. Srinivasan, presides over several ongoing conflicts of interest— the principal being his double role as a team owner and the head of the body that regulates IPL teams. In an atmosphere where open commercial conflicts exist throughout, from former selectors to ex- players and franchise owners to leading members of Team India, how difficult is it for a player to be convinced to bend the rules in exchange for a large sum of money? The BCCI’s casual response to such allegations in the past has skewed the risk- reward ratio in favour of taking the plunge every time.
The latest episode will change nothing unless an independent body such as CBI carries out a deep investigation, not only into players and matches, but also into BCCI officebearers, franchise owners, and everyone who has been handed a central IPL contract. The BCCI’s licence raj of money, power, drugs and sex has gone on for too long. Fixing is a symptom. It’s time to treat the disease.