Indian Premier League Episode 6: Return of match fixing

It started as merely a ‘Three Rotten Egg’ theory and has literally cracked open (pun intended) into a sea of controversy that has now engulfed the entire nation. The media are now on a witch hunt to find the culprits and police forces all over India are making arrests left, right and center. Only one entity could cause this much controversy and chaos: The Indian Premier League. Yes, the brain child of Lalit Modi, the Indian Premier League has never failed to court controversy and yet it has an avid viewership. The BCCI has managed to keep the critics at bay, but this latest controversy may be the final nail in the coffin for the tournament.

The IPL has taken a real dent in its credibility with this latest issue. The nexus of spot fixing has expanded from players to bookies to celebrities to umpires and now even a team owner has come under the scanner. Not since the match fixing controversies of the early 2000s have we seen so much brouhaha over cricket. Relentless debates and news coverage by the media has engulfed our screens and all other issues have been pushed aside. The Indian government must be heaving a sigh of relief that the IPL controversy has deflected attention from the fact that the rupee is at its lowest against the dollar.

Though people are shocked with the level of fixing that has occurred in the game it was only inevitable that it has happened. The IPL with all its glamour quotient serves as a fertile breeding ground for fixing as it gives unrestricted access to players via after parties etc. If the BCCI wants to eradicate this menace it needs to deglamorize the IPL and make it more professional. The Big Bash League in Australia is played sans any fixing or other nefarious elements and mainly because it is run like a professional tournament. The IPL is branded as cricketainment . When given such a tag it will tend to invite the sleaze and menace of the entertainment industry also. And as it has turned out that is exactly what has happened.

It is sad to see that what was regarded as the gentleman’s game can no longer hold onto that moniker. Now youngsters are only interested in making a quick buck and splurging that money on designer clothes and parties. This degradation of the game has gone on for a while now. The rot started a while back but has only come into the spotlight recently. The bigwigs in the BCCI were so comfortable in raking in the moolah that they lost all sight of the main purpose of the tournament: to make it one of the premier domestic tournaments in world cricket. What it has now become is a money laundering machine for players and officials alike.

Investigations are still on and the truth is still out there. But the biggest loser in all this is the fans, the people who pay to watch their heroes battling it out for their respective cities. Where country loyalties are put aside and club loyalties come to the forefront. If the IPL was created to try and rival the English Premier League and try and develop those tribal loyalties then it has taken a severe hit with this scandal. One can only hope that the credibility of cricket is restored after this. The storm will pass over though. In a few months’ time when the media has some other issues to cover all will be forgotten. Such is the circle of life in India.