The terrible shadow of a death by suicide hangs suspiciously over the Tamil Nadu T20 League that is now the subject of an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Unit of the BCCI. Once again there are anguished, frustrated voices that fear that match-fixing, the worst form of sporting malpractice, could be rife in the league that ever since its inception a few years back, draws crowds by the thousands.
The media splashed on front pages the news that the ACU is probing approaches made to the players and would come to a final conclusion only after it completes its investigations. This news followed the tragic demise of VB Chandrasekhar, who was found dead, having hanged himself at his residence on the day India was celebrating its Independence Day.
A former Indian cricketer, television commentator and owner of a T20 team, Chandrasekhar was only 58 years old when he took his own life. An aggressive batsman in his prime, he was a man of refined tastes seeking financial success by becoming a team owner in the Tamil Nadu Premier League.
The news of him giving up on his life, when to the world around he was a successful businessman, was being attributed to his failed venture, having suffered heavy losses in the League that is run by the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association.
What followed this despairing news was the spectre of fixing on the League, where, if newspaper reports are to be believed, the betting syndicate has infiltrated to such an extent that even team owners are under suspicion.
I remember one of the ACU officials of the International Cricket Council not ruling out the possibility of the owners in these leagues, be it at the state level or even in the Indian Premier League, exploiting their authority to “fix” for making money.
Unlike the BCCI, for team owners, these leagues are simple, pure business ventures and like any business, susceptible to insider trading. That is the reason why it was felt that these leagues need stringent scrutiny and harsh checks and balances to prevent them from becoming “mock” manipulated battles to create artificial drama and unlikely results that defy betting odds.
Are we now sniffing at another scandal which could have serious repercussions and even destabilise Indian cricket? We all know what a cover-up results in. TNCA is no stranger to what this is all about. The role of N Srinivasan, his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan and Chennai Super Kings had resulted in a Supreme Court-monitored probe that ended in bans and the Lodha reforms.
That is why these approaches to the players, Chandrasekhar’s distressing death and the news of the betting syndicate controlling the teams, needs to be taken very seriously.
That looks unlikely. At the moment various influential members of the BCCI are busy putting in their proxies at the helm to circumvent various clauses in the new constitution that bars them from holding positions of power. When the IPL scandal surfaced, it was the BCCI president who led the cover-up in an effort to save his son-in-law and his team. To expect anyone of them to worry much about the happenings in the TNPL would be expecting nothing less than a miracle.
It’s up to the three-member Committee of Administrators to take cognisance of this disturbing development. Going by past experience, their own ACU, even if their intentions are sincere, does not have the strength and powers to get to the bottom of this scandal.
In the best interest of Indian cricket, the CoA should request the Supreme Court to monitor the probe, which should be handed over to proper investigating agencies.