The deepening Cricket crisis

One of Bangladesh’s most famous cricketers, the mercurial Mohammad Ashraful, has reportedly apologized for his role in match and spot fixing and has asked his country to forgive him. And while he ought to have considered the ramifications of his awful actions, it is at least more than any other player has been willing to do so far. It is a start. The hope is that he tells all he knows about the sinister nexus of gambling and cricket, and that his co-operation will urge others to do likewise.

Deepening the crisis even further, the Rajasthan Royal’s co-owner, Raj Kundra, has now been suspended by the BCCI. It has now gotten to the point where fans are beginning to think that corruption is probably a part of cricket everywhere. Who is to say that there aren’t shady bookies plotting to pounce on the Champions Trophy? The fact that players could still be convinced to sell out the game despite instances of players being caught and penalized in the past shows that punishment, however harsh, might not be enough of a deterrent.

There have been suggestions that legalizing gambling on cricket in India might be the way to go. It is not. The problem, as I see it, is not gambling per se. Punters betting on games without the involvement of players or umpires would be fine. The trouble comes when players or umpires are enlisted in an effort to fraudulently effect a result or arrange for a particular occurrence during the game. Legalizing gambling on cricket will not prevent that.

Yet the question remains: How is the sport to be washed clean? That’s a difficult problem to resolve with any certainty. No one can tell that there will never be a player somewhere who will be lured by the promise of easy money. Cricket may never totally rise above suspicion but if it is to have a chance of doing so, the players have to somehow be convinced to shun this kind of wrongdoing. Ashraful has agreed to help with the investigation “ for the sake of cricket.” This should be the stance of every cricketer who has ever been approached by anyone trying to bring down the great sport.