Starting with the Why
Sports has always been a fundamental part of our life. It has always played its part in broadening our social spheres and has helped us achieve physical fitness. And if we consider team sports ,then they also provide us multi-faceted benefits . Working in a team teaches us to be a capable tool for achieving our end when working in collusion with others. In our country, cricket has been the dominant game for decades. It has grown by leaps and bounds through the funds pumped into the structural framework to become the behemoth that it is today. Although it is true that cash influx serves to raise the standards of a game as there is enough motivation to work hard. But this has created quite a few problems. The entry of marketers and multinational companies has taken cricket places. This has made cricket a commercial prospect for many and several unsavoury characters have also been associated to this erstwhile Gentleman's game.
Scene from a test match.
Fixing and the perpetrators
Fixing has been literally a thorn in the flesh of cricket administrators since the very start of the game. While fixing an entire match is quite difficult for the sheer number of variables that need to be controlled for it to be successful, spot fixing ,on the other hand, is simpler and it is considered to be an easy way for the betting sharks to gain money. Spot fixing involves fixing or modifying the outcome of a particular ball or an over or a period of play. If the past scandal which led to the bans on players like Ankeet Chavan and Sreesanth were not enough, now two teams have been banned from participating in the Indian Premier League .This is certainly not what was expected when the league started in 2008.It was expected to be a step towards bringing cricket on par with the professional set-up of the football leagues or the NBA. The start was quite encouraging as Cricket achieved new heights of viewership and cricketers were assured of lucrative deals, motivating them to produce their best on the field each time. But, sadly, as is the wont ,money was followed by characters who wanted to mine more of the stuff for themselves and who were not hesitant to employ anything to achieve their end.
The ones accused of fixing recently in the ipl.
Why do we need to be worried?
Indian cricketing scene has always had its fair share of the sharks who have coerced players into fixing up games for them .And with the increase in the amount of cash being pumped into the league, their numbers have certainly increased. but what is startling about the present incident is that the main accused in the fixing-case are the team owners themselves. And what adds an even greater degree of shame to the fact is that one of the accused is Gurunath Meiyappan, the son-in law of N.Srinivasan ,the disgraced head honcho of BCCI. This had led to questions from several circles as to whether Srinivasan himself is a part of the entire scheme. And this spells really bad news for the sport as India is the single largest market of the sport. The present incident when seen combined with the fiasco surrounding Lalit Modi's sacking and the previous spot-fixing incident certainly tends to turn the Indian Premier League into a sham.
The teams banned from the ipl.
Is there a Solution?
The situation needs to be addressed and measures need to be adopted for breaching the rift that has emerged in the structural foundation of the cricket fraternity. Measures need to be taken for achieving a framework where it can be justifiably confirmed that a game has not been tainted by match-fixing or cheating or trickery of any sort. Many have said that the current situation may well spell doom for the league. But, certainly this can also be considered to be the start of a new order which will overhaul the decadent hierarchical framework in place and replace it with a model which can bring about a real revolution. The axing of the two teams from the roster,though a bold step, is actually a step in the right direction and with former players being placed in charge of the roles existing in the BCCI's organization ,there is certainly hope that cricket in our country will be finally free of the corrupt administrators who have plagued it for so many years. There certainly has emerged a hope that this incident will result in the spirit of cricket rising from ashes like the phoenix. Well, cricket lovers around the world will certainly be hoping so.
The ground level cricket scenario.