Fixing approaches should be India’s biggest worry

Sourav Ganguly compared his becoming the board president with his being appointed captain, both at a crisis time for cricket.
Shakib Al Hasan (File | AP)
Shakib Al Hasan (File | AP)

The more disturbing part of the latest episode of corruption in cricket is the muted and even sympathetic support that the shocking involvement with a bookie and the subsequent ban on the world’s top all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has evoked in the sub-continent.  

Shakib is an endearing figure in world cricket and has performed exceptionally well in all formats of the game. That might explain why he still has the backing of his board and even the team, despite having been in touch with an Indian bookmaker, whose advances to “fix” he failed to report to the ICC.  The ICC has released transcripts of his conversation with the bookie which reveal the approaches to which Shakib, despite being on friendly terms with him, did not respond. It is obvious that the ICC has no proof of his having indulged in the real “act” and has had to go by his declaration that he did not do anything wrong, hence a two-year ban instead of a much harsher punishment.

Shakib Al Hasan’s suspension came 
as a shocker for cricket fraternity

It’s not known how ICC got hold of these private messages exchanged by the two, which itself raise a host of questions. Since Shakib did not reveal them, who was the whistle blower and what more is known to the ICC  that we don’t? 

Ever since the IPL fixing scandal surfaced, leading to the Supreme Court intervention, more and more damaging revelations have surfaced which clearly show that the book-makers have made deep inroads into the mushrooming T20 leagues across the world. The Karnataka Premier League is under the scanner and so is the Tamil Nadu Premier League. In Bangladesh itself, the widely popular T20 League has been plagued by allegations of fixing. Sri Lankan cricket has had a long history of dubious integrity reflected in the suspected involvement of a legend like Sanath Jayasuria who was punished for not cooperating with the ICC in their effort to probe allegations of fixing.

Much before the T20 leagues became money-spinners, the match-fixing scourge had gobbled up players of the stature of Mohammad Azharuddin and Hansie Cronje. The greed to earn more through selling the game was far more widespread than anyone had visualised in 2000 when these revelations surfaced.
Two decades later, cricket is a far richer game, with India emerging as its main source of revenue generation and the players getting paid handsomely. That has not helped in curbing this greed and tempters, in the guise of book-makers, have now even started to own teams as is being alleged in the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka Leagues.

In this eco-system, these leagues, many fear, have become the new breeding grounds for “fixing” to flourish. Since the source of most money, legal and illegal, is India, we need to worry the most and be more responsive and take emergency measures to cleanse the game of this scourge.
However, that doesn’t appear to be the priority of the Indian board, as they seem focussed on trying to get more share of the ICC earnings than worry about how the vitals of the game are being hollowed out by this player-bookie nexus.

Sourav Ganguly compared his becoming the board president with his being appointed captain, both at a crisis time for cricket. Ganguly believes the present crisis is due to administrative problems. He should wake up to the fact that he has become the board president due to the shake-up caused by the IPL “fixing” cover-up done by the then board president N Srinivasan and his cronies. Instead of rubbing shoulders with them and seeking their support, his bigger responsibility is to address this issue of corruption which is threatening the very credibility of the game.

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