CHENNAI: IPS officer G Sampathkumar, who was entangled in the cricket match fixing scam, has moved the Madras High Court to restrain the BCCI from holding season-11 of Indian Premier League (IPL) from April 7 in Chennai without taking step to prevent match-fixing and betting.The first bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice A Selvam, before which the petition from Sampath Kumar came up for hearing on Wednesday, ordered notice to the Union Home ministry and the BCCI.Directing the duo to file their response by April 13, the bench said that though the apprehensions raised by the petitioner are bona fide, it is not known how the game could be stalled just because there was the possibility of match fixing and other offences.
Petitioner replied that his intention was not to stall the game and agreed to amend the prayer accordingly.
Claiming that the game has already been shamed by the recent ball tampering row by Australian cricketers, the petitioner said, IPL is an internationally watched event and every franchise is associated with a region of the country, and therefore any shame caused by such teams would directly affect the emotions of that particular region. Even after the 2013 betting scam, no deterrent or transparent preventive measures have been brought in by BCCI, the petitioner said.
The bench asked the petitioner to submit the measures he would suggest to check such offences. “We have laws, including the Prevention of Corruption Act to prevent corruption. But can we say that corruption does not exist in society” the bench asked.The scope of installing monitoring devices like CCTVs are limited as such equipment can only be put up in public areas. But such offences seldom happen in public places, the court added.According to Sampathkumar, he, as an investigating officer, was instrumental in exposing 2013 spot fixing and betting in IPL matches.
Even after exposure of such scam, the BCCI does not have any system of accountability in performance of its anti-corruption unit and does not have a database of earnings of its players or about bookies, fixers and kingpins of illegal betting, he said.“Unless either the player disclose or own up the wrong doing or get caught unaware through cameras like Australian cricketer Cameron Bancroft was caught by the camera rubbing the ball with a yellow tape at Cape Town in South Africa recently, there is no system for addressing such improper actions.The credibility of a gentlemen’s game suffers at the hands of players whom the nation has placed total trust to represent them globally and at home.
The recent ball tampering incident confirms that there is no system in place to check such irregularities, making the orders of the Supreme Court ineffective while the Indian Premier League season continues unscathed by any code of true sportsmanship year after year cheating, misrepresenting, playing fraud on the viewers and fans, killing the very game itself in the process,” he said.