The way cricket is
being played and is being played up by the media reminds me of the famous quote
of the late lamented Debkank Barooah, the then AICC President who had said
“India is Indira and Indira is India”. True, Cricket is the most popular game
in the country. It was popular earlier as well. Take some 50 years ago in the
1960s when there was no television, people would throng around radio set in tea
and paan shop to listen to the ball to ball commentary of test mach. But never
before, it got the attention of the media as it is getting today.
For the last ten
days, the match fixing news have hogged the headlines of all the television
news channels big and small as well as all newspapers in all languages as if
nothing happening in the world except cricket. To say that more than 120 crores
people of India have been cheated by the players involved in the match fixing
is not only far from truth but ludicrous to say the least. The IPL is all about
big money. Neither the government of the day nor the media are interested in
going into all pervasive corruption and illegality in running the show of
cricket. The ruling elite controls the cricket corporate, be it the BCCI or the
IPL it is replete with slush money. And in India nobody in power or in
authority is interested in eliminating the slush and easy money being generated
by the show. This is not to suggest that the match fixing news should not be
highlighted. I should but not to the extent it is being played up currently.
The format of the IPL veers around big money and so is the media of the day. To
survive in the business one has to do as others do.
One more important
aspect is policing the betting in the game. Law alone can’t stop the betting
business. I read a small news buried on inside page of a national daily that
said Iran executed two persons who were found guilty of spying for Israel and
the CIA. Knowing that there is a death penalty for spying in Iran, people true
or false accused of spying were not deterred by the harsh punishment for the
crime. They went ahead and committed the crime. Likewise, the arrest of three
cricket players in the match fixing is unlikely to deter some other cricketers
who are prone to under take the slush money to throw up the match.
The cricketers
involved in the fixing charge were well paid. The fee running into millions of
rupees. Yet, they were lured to the crime syndicate of satta operators.
“Lust of easy
money takes you to the gallows”.
~ by R.K.Sinha
India is Cricket, Cricket is India
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