As cricketers, the players have been guilty of betraying the spirit of the game. Their being charged by the Mumbai police of various offences in collusion with bookmakers is a serious matter.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has come down hard on a few tainted cricketers charged with spot and match-fixing. The life ban from the game on Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan, and lesser bans on two others after an internal inquiry, was on expected lines.
The moot point is whether the punishment was bona fide since the matter is before a court of law.
There is no arguing against the spirit behind the ban, which may also be the fate awaiting another Rajasthan Royals player, Ajit Chandila, who is yet to appear before the BCCI’s chief corruption investigator, Ravi Sawani. As cricketers, the players have been guilty of betraying the spirit of the game. Their being charged by the Mumbai police of various offences in collusion with bookmakers and high rollers is a serious enough matter that warrants taking a strong stand as cricket has now become the livelihood of many.
The larger issue is that the BCCI itself is under a cloud with many in its upper echelons suspected of having links with the world of betting. Its handling of the crisis has been questioned by the Mumbai high court, which has had disparaging things to say about the sanctity of an internal probe run by two retired high court judges at BCCI’s behest. The decision of imposing bans was also arrived at in a disciplinary committee meeting chaired by the president in self-exile, N. Srinivasan. Ironically, the BCCI president’s son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan, also faces charges of bringing the game into disrepute because of his dubious connections with bookies and bettors with whom he may have shared strategic team information he was privy to by virtue of his privileged position in the dugout of Chennai Super Kings. Given this backdrop, the verdict passed on players is not quite sensitive to the circumstances Indian cricket finds itself in. The point is that the BCCI has far more to do than throw the rule book at small fry. A proper cleansing of the cricket board can take place only if there is realisation at the very top that there is far too much wrong with a system in which a well rewarded player like Sreesanth, who has played in two World Cups, is caught indulging in spot-fixing. Would this be conceivable if there didn’t exist an environment of impunity?
To await the sentencing of players at the end of an intractable judicial process may have been unwise. But the BCCI could have announced that its internal procedures are subject to judicial scrutiny and its decisions subject to review.
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