THE IPL-GATE – from the eyes of a Commoner

For any cricket lover, the last 10 days have been full of mixed emotions to say the least. I still remember a panicking Swathi (my wife) calling me at noon to inform me that the RR Trio had been caught spot fixing. And since then it has been a parade of arrests including the mighty ‘Guru’. There has been media frenzy with 24/7 channels airing the same news over and over, and as Milind Rege rightly put it on one of the TV shows I participated in as a caller, “the common man will now tend to see all cricket with jaundiced eyes”. On the other hand unnoticeably England and New Zealand have been indulging in some good old test cricket which has been long forgotten in this country called India and Rahul Dravid has been carrying the torch of Integrity and Class, albeit all alone.

We have had experts from all fields, talking about IPL saga from legal, criminal, economical, moral, ethical, sporting and governance points of view. So what does a common man (or woman) think of all these. Because end of it all it is us, the cricket fan, who pays for the entire circus directly and indirectly.

Though I do not represent the entire creed of common people, I think the cricket fan is at the least saddened. However this does not mean they may be driven off the game. Yes, there is outrage on the streets, there is anger in social media but the stadiums are still full. And if the TV reports are to be believed the TRPs of IPL have gone skywards since the scandal broke out. The reason behind this is the eternal hope of “everything will be alright soon” which even I exude. The common man though angry wants his heroes to come out of this clean. Though MSD skipped the pre-final conference to avoid tough questions and though there have already been murmurs about how he is in a precarious position, the real MSD fan (and cricket fan as well) hopes that he has nothing to do with the scandal and he comes out of it as the hero he always has been. Only time will tell.

Beyond the angst however, I want to also ask several questions. These are issues that not many media houses or experts are highlighting. However, these are pertinent questions in my humble opinion. The first issue that seems to have missed the limelight is the IPL after parties. It has been a well established fact by now that the bookies have been contacting these players in these parties. And if one observes the nature of these events it is clear that there is an unprecedented access to cricketers.

Not just in the olden days but even as late as 2007 and in cases of Test and One Day cricket even today, the cricketers have always been a lot which people had less than limited access to. When on 2-3 month tours the team used to stay in a hotel and partied together in almost zero outside access environment. The IPL after parties have completely changed the scenario. I am sure the bookies and the fixers were thankful to the person who came up with this idea. I strongly believe that the most efficient step towards curbing corruption in cricket will be to monitor who has access to players. If this means keeping the businessmen who own the teams out of the hotel, dressing rooms and dugouts, so be it.

The second question has been raised across platforms but only occasionally and that too without too much fervor. The large question of conflict of interest. I could not help laughing out loud when I read in one of the news feed that BCCI is going to question the CSK ownership on the Guru issue. Imagine it for a moment. Mr. N Srinivasan in his capacity as the President of BCCI and part of its disciplinary committee will write to Mr. N Srinivasan the owner of India Cements and thus the owner of Chennai Super Kings seeking explanation. And then may be go on and give a clean chit to himself as well. How kool is that?

Dig deeper and you will notice that this is not only limited to Mr. Srinivasan. Krish Srikkanth was the chairman of selectors and mentor of CSK. MSD is the captain of CSK and India (in that order I believe) and therefore a part of the selection committee and also the Vice President of India Cements. In fact even the great Rahul Dravid is a Vice President at India Cements and captains their corporate team. In fact a glance at India Cements team in the BCCI corporate trophy will introduce you to about half of the Chennai Super Kings side. Then the greats like Sunny Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri who was/is on the IPL Governing Council are paid commentators of BCCI for IPL. No wonder you do not hear factual commentary. This list is certainly longer than then entire length of this article. While I am not at all suggesting that all these people have been indulging in malafide practices, one cannot but overlook the scope that such an overlap brings.

To sum it up I think the common man also has a tendency to forget or forgive and sometimes both. Therefore there certainly no threat to the gate collections and to those consumer brands associated with cricket. All will be merry too soon for comfort. And finally, I am certain of one thing. Cricket has to come out this as a winner and I am pretty sure it will. Whether it does so by cleaning up or by shoving everything under the carpet remains to be seen. I am hopeful at best.