Srinivasan saves IPL
20 May 2013 2:01 AM GMT
In the end, N Srinivasan did what was expected of him. He saved his beleaguered cricket league and passed on the duty to clean it up to others.
The BCCI president’s message is loud and clear: It doesn’t matter if a handful of cricketers, from Test to Ranji level, get caught for betraying millions of fans by underperforming, the cash-rich league is here to stay. BCCI is proud of the roaring monetary gains of the event, but aren’t willing to be connected with the flip side of the jamboree.
Meanwhile, the drama continued on Sunday with the arrest of three more bookies from Maharashtra, one of them a former Vidharba Ranji player, forcing the government to mull a new law to deal with betting in sport.
On the face of it, the BCCI chief said all the right things. Addressing a crowded press conference in Chennai after an emergency meeting of the board’s working committee, Srinivasan promised to take strongest possible action against the players if they are found guilty besides admitting the board’s inability to control the bookie-player tie-up. ‘Everybody is innocent till proven guilty. BCCI will not cover up for anybody but our actions must be fair. We will go through the process. If somebody is found guilty, we will act sternly,’ he said. While many expected BCCI to come out with some tough measures, in reality, its boss didn’t say anything new but only repeated cliches like ‘we have to go by the rules’, ‘we have offered Delhi Police all our assistance’ etc.
Everyone knows IPL is more than cricket. Like the format of the game, fixing has also evolved a great deal. To earn some thing to the tune of Rs 40-60 lakhs, all a player needs to do is concede 14 runs in one over, which is quite regular in T20. Not being a law enforcement agency, BCCI can’t eliminate match-fixing completely, it has its restrictions. True. Similarly, there is no point of having complete autonomy if the board isn’t qualified to tackle all its issues.
The recent arrests have not unearthed any hidden secret. Catching five small fishes in a pond thronged by big players will hardly change the scenario. The Sunday presser certainly didn’t.
The BCCI president’s message is loud and clear: It doesn’t matter if a handful of cricketers, from Test to Ranji level, get caught for betraying millions of fans by underperforming, the cash-rich league is here to stay. BCCI is proud of the roaring monetary gains of the event, but aren’t willing to be connected with the flip side of the jamboree.
Meanwhile, the drama continued on Sunday with the arrest of three more bookies from Maharashtra, one of them a former Vidharba Ranji player, forcing the government to mull a new law to deal with betting in sport.
On the face of it, the BCCI chief said all the right things. Addressing a crowded press conference in Chennai after an emergency meeting of the board’s working committee, Srinivasan promised to take strongest possible action against the players if they are found guilty besides admitting the board’s inability to control the bookie-player tie-up. ‘Everybody is innocent till proven guilty. BCCI will not cover up for anybody but our actions must be fair. We will go through the process. If somebody is found guilty, we will act sternly,’ he said. While many expected BCCI to come out with some tough measures, in reality, its boss didn’t say anything new but only repeated cliches like ‘we have to go by the rules’, ‘we have offered Delhi Police all our assistance’ etc.
Everyone knows IPL is more than cricket. Like the format of the game, fixing has also evolved a great deal. To earn some thing to the tune of Rs 40-60 lakhs, all a player needs to do is concede 14 runs in one over, which is quite regular in T20. Not being a law enforcement agency, BCCI can’t eliminate match-fixing completely, it has its restrictions. True. Similarly, there is no point of having complete autonomy if the board isn’t qualified to tackle all its issues.
The recent arrests have not unearthed any hidden secret. Catching five small fishes in a pond thronged by big players will hardly change the scenario. The Sunday presser certainly didn’t.
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