Played with the game

Unbelievable, yet true that cricket’s image was tarnished beyond imagination with the sentence being handed out to Pakistan trio, Butt, Asif and Amir along with the bookie Majeed. It would have been a rude shock for millions of ardent fans of cricket to see cricketers being put behind bars, for the first time, ever. It’s been a great loss to the whole cricket fraternity, who can just pray that the ghost of match-fixing never ever returns. Kudos to Scotland Yard for carrying out the investigation and thereby living upto it’s own reputation. ICC, on it’s part had done well by suspending the trio even before the investigation was started and thus saving the game.

However, few questions remain un-answered
1. Will this sentence mean that the match-fixing/ spot fixing has been laid to rest ?
2. Is the sentence good enough to deter the cricketers from getting lured into fixing ? Whatwould be the stance of cricket boards/ ICC and the respective governments to further curb match-fixing ?
3. Will the bookies cease to exist. If yes, what would be their next job ?

And the BIG one,
Is cricket now really a gentleman’s game ?

First and foremost, I strongly believe that match-fixing is here to stay. It has become very much part of the system and will continue to exist , just the form may change. The game took a beating almost a decade back when the monster named match-fixing had surfaced, putting some of the greats of that time, under intense scrutiny. Few of those under question were convicted and banned, few had walked away scot-free. Hansie Cronje, the MAN who had the courage to accept being unfair to the game and to his country, was killed in a plane crash, as a part of plot (this may invite a lot of arguments which may not be defendable, but I still believe that Cronje’s death was planned and plotted). A decade later, the fixing stays and comes back with a bang. Food for thought : if a bookie is not doing match-fixing, then what else is his job. The bookies have thrived and just won’t be wiped out. They are like the reptiles who will hibernate during unfavorable conditions and will surface whenever the time is ripe.

The sentence handed out to the tainted trio may well be a deterrent to the new breed of cricketers. However, there have to be much more stringent laws to make players realize that they are playing at the supreme level and hence any devious maneuvers will invite strictest of punishment . Let me analyze this a bit further . Why do cricketers do match-fixing
a. Money
b. Money
c. Money

That’s the root cause. Cricketers who have learnt to play the game in the dusty by-lanes of the sub-continent, get bamboozled when they see the quantum of money, swankiest cars, awesome girls. Pretty sure that a few cricket boards, do pay their cricketers well. But it’s time to pay them even better. A quenched person would be pretty relaxed and would be less likely lured by any form of juices offered. It would be very difficult to pay equivalent to what a bookie can pay. Still, if efforts can be made to pay the cricketers better, probably, lesser would be the fixing. Sentences, are good enough to set an example. However, bans have been there in the past, but that hasn’t been a stronger deterrent for the players. My argument is, even if a players is sentenced or banned, he has made the buck, to be enjoyed later or by his family and generation. Just that the player has to be shameless when put behind bars a.k.a. Mohammed Azharuddin (as I write this post, Azharuddin, is Member of Parliament, India; one of the highest designation held by a citizen).

For the cricket boards, ICC and the governments of cricket-playing nations, it is imperative to address the issue at the earliest. A few suggestions
a. Make very stringent laws with no scope for neo-nepotism and punish the guilty
b. Educate the youngsters. Show them the right way at the very first instance.
c. Inculcate the best-practices to say NO to any form of fixing right at the cricket academy level.

The bookies will NOT cease to exist, infact they will continue to prosper. As the game becomes more rich, it’s reach expands to more nations, brings in unprecedented MOOLAH in the form of T20 leagues a.k.a IPL, bookies will continue to rule the roost. As match-fixing can never be fool-proof, there would always be some window for a bookie to sneak in and do the job. My argument is, if a bookie will not fix the matches, what will he do ? The only answer I can fathom is he can stop match-fixing. Probably, ICC can do a Catch-me-if-you-can. Yeah, let ICC hire the culprit Majeed and he can not only open Pandora’s box, but also can be very helpful to plug the loopholes in the system, which may help to make the system near foolproof.

Lastly, is the game really for a gentleman now ? NAY. The game had started in England, in the purest of it’s form. It was played, practiced and enjoyed by a race which has been fair-minded for ages and ages. They had the true love and devotion for the game. For English, yes this was a religion. Indian sub-continent has been a land of crooks. I think the British made some gargantuan efforts to improve the shady nerds, but just couldn’t. The result speaks the volumes : Maximum number of players involved in fixing were and will always be from the sub-continent. And so would be the bookies. The English can just pity themselves for the game to be harassed and raped right in front of them. Wish they could have kept cricket just a gentleman’s game.