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It is irony at its best, that three cricketers, who are arrested for the spot fixing during the cash-and-controversy rich Indian Premier League, belong to Rajasthan Royals – a team headed by Rahul Dravid.
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While it is sad to see such scandals erupting in Indian cricket, specially in IPL, it is even worse to find out that players from Dravid’s team disgraced it so royally. What did Dravid do to deserve this?
This incident will put suspicion back in the viewers’ mind. There will now be cynicism about every match. With each turn of events in a match, it will not be the players, but the bookies, who would get credit.
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The purists will be disheartened while every Tom, Dick and Harry will become an analyst raising a finger on every game, every wicket, every six, and every four.
People are already riding high on suspicion saying no wonder every match had a nail biting end. Shekhar Kapur wrote on twitter, “Shocked at spot fixing in IPL? Why? Its huge stakes, financial manipulation n pure entertainment. Its not cricket O'l Chap". Pritish Nandy also commented that actually the IPL is like our movie awards, “designed for TV and TRPs. Don't expect too much authenticity there. Its just another show.”
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Actually it is nobody else but the IPL, which is responsible for its sorry state of affairs. At the end of the day, it has changed the game of cricket with the kind of money, glamour and entertainment. While there will be many who liked this format of cricket better than an ODI or a Test match (who has time to sit through for five match days today?), what it has done for cricketers is that it has created a money-making avenue.
Many players came out as one series wonders, fairly rewarded in terms of monies, but never made it to the national squads. One would wonder how we have reached this level. The answer lies in a former cricketers’ casual observation that he made a couple of years back while talking to me. He said, in our days, it was not money but the pride of playing for the team, which drove us to perform. Today’s kids get quick money, they don’t have game spirit and consider cricket as just another profession. And IPL has made it worse as they don’t even play for the country.
Now I am not capable enough to comment on that, but I can see that viewers are angry today. In a country where cricket is religion, viewers have been way too forgiving. But the buck has to stop somewhere.
Another gray area with IPL is: Why were all the issues just pushed under the carpet since its inception in 2008? It is a billion dollar league with lots of money involved, but that doesn’t give cricket's richest board (read the BCCI) a right to not take corrective action.
May be strict action like a lifetime ban will help, but the image of the game has already been tarnished beyond repair.
Now I also wonder, what will be going on in the headquarters of PepsiCo, the title sponsor of the IPL and the biggest advertiser of the game. Also, Vodafone and other brands which have put in big monies on IPL. While the business head of a television broadcaster had told this writer long back that all publicity (good or bad) is good publicity, I wonder what the officials of Sony Entertainment, the official broadcaster of IPL, are going through.
After a tough year in the last season, Sony Entertainment got new advertisers this year, but with this incident the going might get tougher for the broadcaster.
