Stop treating cricket fans like idiots !!! If everyone in the spot-fixing scandal is ‘innocent’, then who is guilty? All those who were arrested in connection with spot-fixing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) have claimed their innocence. Their statements makes one wonder whether the Mumbai and Delhi Police, who have compiled the chargesheet painstakingly, had nothing else to do but launch a witch-hunt of cricketers and officials. The tragedy in Indian sport is this refusal to own up to their crime despite evidence piled against them. It would be worthwhile to remember the late Hansie Cronje, who admitted to being involved in match-fixing. The Indian cricketers, who were also named in the match-fixing incident on that occasion, claimed innocence. They gave the impression that they were being banned for life because some people were keen on destroying their careers. Years later, when Pakistan cricketers were arrested for spot-fixing in England, they too claimed innocence. Their statements also gave the impression that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) enjoys banning their most promising players. Fortunately, their cricketers have admitted to the crime and agreed to cooperate with the Anti Corruption Unit. Indian pacer S. Sreesanth too has claimed innocence and so have Pakistan umpire Asad Rauf and N. Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan. With all of them denying any involvement, it now looks like the whole scandal in IPL is nothing but a mere cooked-up story. Do these accused consider all cricket fans to be idiots or do they believe that by claiming innocence, they can live as martyrs? One can put all of this down to the prevailing system in these countries, where the corrupt can thrive without regret. The very fact that Srinivasan wants to be re-elected as president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India for another term is because of this society that tolerates such corruption and arrogance. Soon after Meiyappan was charged of betting and cheating, Srinivasan stated: “Why should I step aside? I am not disqualified and neither can you push me out.” This statement should be listed among the most shameless words ever to come from power-hungry sports administrators. It was right under his nose that Meiyappan acted as owner of Chennai Super Kings, sat in the dugout and committed all of these crimes. Owning up responsibility would have been apt at this moment. Unfortunately, Indian sport encourages such administrators and the result is that sport bodies with such people at the helm slip to shame, like the Indian Olympics Association (IOA) and the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF). Srinivasan may still get re-elected, but he will set the wrong precedent and Indian cricket history will always remember him as the president who shamelessly fought for power by misusing the system. By K.R. Nayar, Chief Cricket Writer
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 04:29:46 +0000
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