SUNDAY MUSINGS

It’s like the London Philharmonic Orchestra in full session at the Royal Albert Hall. Now the choir has begun to sing. Closer to home, in Delhi, the khaki- clad Police have begun to hunt down the giants of the latest Indian soap opera – the IPL scandal – one by one.

ICC umpire Azad Rauf has been withdrawn from the Champion’s Trophy by the game’s governing body as a result of fixing allegations at the IPL. Indian actor Vindoo Dara Singh is singing a lullaby about how he placed bets on behalf of the Gurunath Melyappan, son-in-law of BCCI chief N. Srinivasan. Melyappan is supposed to be an owner of the Chennai Super Kings. Alas! Now he is in police custody. But, by the time you read this column, the list may be longer because the orchestra is still in session.

For the better half of the past century there have been match fixing incidents and the first recorded of any kind came at a baseball game when the White Sox were banned for intentionally losing a game in the Super League in 1919.

However according to Wikipedia gambling in the game has a history almost the length of the game’s survival. In 1660, cricket is believed to have first attracted gamblers making large bets. In 1664, the "Cavalier" Parliament passed the Gaming Act which limited stakes to £100.

Cricket had certainly become a significant gambling sport by the end of the 17th century. There is a newspaper report of a "great match" played in Sussex in 1697 which was an 11- a- side and played for high stakes of 50 guineas a side. Believe me this was even before the proper laws of the games were constituted.

First it was the closing of the Sharjah Cricket Centre with corruption allegations. Then it was the holier- than- thou Australian cricket in 1994/ 95 when an Indian bookmaker offered money to Australian cricketers Mark Waugh and Shane Warne in exchange for information related to pitch and weather conditions. Inconclusive ( or so they say) evidence in the case resulted in the players being let off and the episode fading away from public memory.

The case was swept under the carpet and this laxity meant that by 2000, fixers had taken over the reins of cricket.

Hell really broke loose in April 2000 when the Delhi Police intercepted a conversation between an Indian bookie and the former South African skipper Hanse Cronje. This shook the very foundation of the game of cricket. Soon players in the calibre of Mohammed Azharuddin, Manoj Prabhakar and Ajey Jadeja were caged with the same offence and were banned. It is also said that Prabhakar tried to implicate the Indian super hero Kapil Dev but that attempt said to have boomeranged on Prabhakar himself.

There have been accusations and convictions of various types and many cricketers have had their careers shortened and punched gaping holes in their pockets and reputations, but the curse of this menace continued.

Yet, ironically most of the cases sometimes even when the developments occur in England it is the Indian bookie that is pointed at. In India, a country where

many reli- gions were born, gambling is scorned upon and only the horse racing has got the official nod, but illegal gambling is thriving.

Nevertheless in India, illegal gambling is more than a cottage industry there and it runs to millions of rupees and the very souls of greedy young cricketers who always look for shortcuts to pad their pennies.

The latest episode in this never- ending soap opera was released last week. The main actors are adorning the stage one by one. It began with the three jokers of the movie -- Indian Premier League players - S. Sreesanth and spinners Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila -- getting caught. It was not exactly matchfixing, but spot fixing where the top actor requests the joker to perform a trick at a given time. If he does perform the trick right he gets a banana and the actor gets more than a cool million. Yet, knowing the consequences the poor fish swallowed the bait right upto their tail.

Now once the ball was delivered with a towel on the band, the Indian machine got itself started. Now the Indian government is discussing moves to bring in legislation. Such legisla- tion should have been introduced with the first whiff of the Indian bookies in operation. The respective sports bodies can act upon these misdemeanours yet they only can specify various bans.

In some countries where gambling is legal, fixing is illegal. In those countries there are even jail sentences for those who indulge in fixing. However some say these drastic laws have been introduced mostly to safeguard the larger interests of legal gambling.

After this recent development, we stumbled upon an interesting discussion on NDTV, where some illustrious past Indian cricketers and other cricketing pundits were in a forum. During the discussion one of the participants suggested that gambling should be legalised in India, but, former Australian cricketer Dean Jones was quick to react and squashed that by saying in Australia where gambling is legal, it has become a menace to the sport, and now they are in the process of finding ways of combating that situation.

Yet, the known evil is better than the unknown. We feel in India the illegal bookies have thrived because there is a tendency for maggots to grow in filth. With this background a cricket tournament with a dubious background like the IPL, became ideal fodder for the black bookies. When they lured Azharuddin and Cronje it was few and far between. The Delhi Police may say anything, but we feel that what we have seen is only the bails of the wicket the real stumps are yet to be discovered.

The IPL itself has been dragged through the mud patch even prompting some of the franchises to shut their doors. Right at this moment the management of the Poone Warriors is having a huge fight with the BCCI. The Indian High Court is blaming the BCCI for its lackadaisical attitude towards fixers. High flyer Lalith Modi had to hide himself in England, after certain developments that went against him in the manner he handled the tournament. At the same time he publicly claims he is confined to England as a result of the death threats following his revelations about corruption at the IPL.

Then if the situation is so black the IPL certainly cannot pass St. Peter or the pearly gates.

At this end the Lankans are still holding on to their pants. Of course there have been probes and interrogations even against top flight cricketers but nothing was proven. Only the individuals who faced them would know how and why the spark was ignited.

Even last year there was a tape received by our sister newspaper Daily Mirror claiming there was match fixing at the SLPL, but the file never reached its proper destiny.

However, it is known that anything to do with the shortest version of the game there is residue and worms at the bottom of the can. In India or in Sri Lanka they should bring in legislation to catch the idiots. When it is done not only the poor greedy cricketer that is usually lugged, but even the real perpetrators of the crime who always get the benefit of the doubt, or just simply buy the case out could be lugged at least for the time being.