Cricket, a gentleman’s game!

Cricket, once considered to be a Gentleman’s Game, is now no longer the same.

The game is slowly going the football way, where fixing is a common phenomenon. Bookies and match fixing scandals have turned the cricket ground into a gambling den. Some players want to earn easy money by hook or by crook and being soft target fall prey to fixers. Cricket in the Indian subcontinent, is a religion and players are worshiped like Gods, however, with the recent expose by the Delhi and Mumbai Police, cricket fans have felt cheated. They are now in dilemma whether they should follow cricket with same passion or not. Their trust has been shaken after the arrest of Sreesanth and two other crickets.

George Bernard Shaw once said, “Cricket is a game played by 22 fools and watched by 22,000 fools,”, however after the recent spot- fixing, it won’t be wrong if said, “Cricket is a game played by 22 fixers and watched by 22,000 fools.”

Cities like Sharjah, Dubai, Delhi, Karachi, London and Sydney were once known as ‘Mecca of Cricket’ have turned into havens for bookies. Even the Indian Government has banned matches at Sharjah after several match fixing incidents were reported from there.

Over the last three decades, Cricket has been on the radar of bookies. Teams and players of India, Pakistan, Australia, England, Sri Lanka and others have been found guilty in match fixing scandals. However, ICC and their respective boards have put a ban on them, but fixing is still on.

Meanwhile, the Indian Sports Minister said that his head hangs in shame after the spot-fixing incident came to light. While Delhi police said that more arrest are likely to happen soon as they have concrete evidence against bookies and cricketers.

But the big question is after the recent expose will action be taken against the accused, or will they be freed or acquitted like others who were found guilty earlier and again have associated themselves with cricket by holding the position of coaches, selectors, commentators and cricket experts.

ICC, BCCI and Delhi Police claim that strict action will be taken to restore the image of cricket, but only future will say what action these agencies will take for the betterment of the ‘Gentleman’s Game’.