Last week, I happened to be at Kanpur appearing for an examination. I didn't crack it but, something unexpected happened that day. Allegations of the F-word, Fixing against three IPL players. One of them, who I felt, if nurtured, could have achieved a lot for India. To say, we are surprised to hear about a fixing scandal would be naive but, yes, disappointment would be rife. In a country where stuff as trivial as fodder to as intangible as airwaves can be milked
for personal gains, cricket was the only positive news left to read. How
soon would this bubble burst was what everyone feared. Sadly, we had this coming too.
Last year, we had a 'rotten apple', Mohnish Mishra. He too was discarded under a misconception that the other apples are fine. We had accusations of auction and election rigging. There is a case of the cricketers being paid more than their bid value by means of gifts. No inquiry was ever conducted(or, at least the findings of it were not made public, or may be, the allegations are indeed correct), just false promises from the "caretakers" of Indian cricket.
If there were a list of the top opaque sporting bodies in the world, very few eyebrows would be raised if the BCCI is somewhere near the top. But hey, isn't that how our country functions? How can we expect the BCCI to be any different? In a "chalta hai" country, where you aren't guilty unless you are caught red handed, where the parent body is accused of rampant corruption, will our cricketers be able to resist the temptation? If he does, he is an honorable man. If he doesn't, he is just like us, an opportunist, a realist, a person who made the most of the situation at hand.
Our cricketers, who, some day were somebody's neighbors, someone's classmate, someone's 'that kid across the street', who were brought up just like us, be any different from us, loving the game we love? Wouldn't we mind earning an extra buck, if it literally doesn't hurt anybody? Add to this, the possibility of not getting caught. Isn't that an incentive for sportsmen who have just a few years to earn their livelihood unlike the more fortunate salaried class who can do so till the age of 60? It is difficult to guess what we would have done had we been in his place. However, if he were in our shoes, he might have jumped the traffic signal if a policeman wasn't around, he might have bought an item or two from some of the 'illegal' street hawkers, he might have asked for favours from a nepotist to smoothen some process.
The rot seems to be endemic and would take something more than discarding the rotten egg to cure it.
On a positive note, maybe our film industry could learn a lesson or two on scripts from some of our cricketers, administrators and bookies. Follow a well-made script and reap a lot in returns!
Last year, we had a 'rotten apple', Mohnish Mishra. He too was discarded under a misconception that the other apples are fine. We had accusations of auction and election rigging. There is a case of the cricketers being paid more than their bid value by means of gifts. No inquiry was ever conducted(or, at least the findings of it were not made public, or may be, the allegations are indeed correct), just false promises from the "caretakers" of Indian cricket.
If there were a list of the top opaque sporting bodies in the world, very few eyebrows would be raised if the BCCI is somewhere near the top. But hey, isn't that how our country functions? How can we expect the BCCI to be any different? In a "chalta hai" country, where you aren't guilty unless you are caught red handed, where the parent body is accused of rampant corruption, will our cricketers be able to resist the temptation? If he does, he is an honorable man. If he doesn't, he is just like us, an opportunist, a realist, a person who made the most of the situation at hand.
Our cricketers, who, some day were somebody's neighbors, someone's classmate, someone's 'that kid across the street', who were brought up just like us, be any different from us, loving the game we love? Wouldn't we mind earning an extra buck, if it literally doesn't hurt anybody? Add to this, the possibility of not getting caught. Isn't that an incentive for sportsmen who have just a few years to earn their livelihood unlike the more fortunate salaried class who can do so till the age of 60? It is difficult to guess what we would have done had we been in his place. However, if he were in our shoes, he might have jumped the traffic signal if a policeman wasn't around, he might have bought an item or two from some of the 'illegal' street hawkers, he might have asked for favours from a nepotist to smoothen some process.
The rot seems to be endemic and would take something more than discarding the rotten egg to cure it.
On a positive note, maybe our film industry could learn a lesson or two on scripts from some of our cricketers, administrators and bookies. Follow a well-made script and reap a lot in returns!
