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IPL – Total betrayal and shaken credibility

Posted by : Raj Bhandari on | May 25,2013

These three musketeers of cricket have shamefully indulged in this malpractice for making quick money by adopting the most unethical, cheap but cleverly constituted conspiracy. They had never ever imagined that such a deep impact may arise and may put a severe dent on the future of the otherwise most appreciated grand gala show praised by one & all.This directly places a big question mark on the career of hundreds of young aspirants, who were being gainfully benefitted by getting a chance on this wonderful platform and were getting acclaim, appreciation & recognition from millions of fans.

There were already some whispers in the air, about the possible modalities which might have been worked out by these crooked people behind the curtains since a long time. A section of people were meaningfully pointing out towards the unnatural ups & downs happening in the IPL. Sudden rise of an unpopular batsman, dramatic fall of an experienced bowler, fielders dropping easy catches, missed chances of clear run outs, seniors indulged in casual fielding. In a nutshell, established ones were not performing, but on the contrary, the not so experience players were delivering par excellence.

I would like to make it very clear that until now, only the charges of spot fixing have been established, but a common man, unaware of the complexities involved, does think on the lines of entire matches being rigged. Sometimes, many of the innocent fans doubt whether all these dramatic turns are taking place in a natural flow or something bigger is the driving force? Usually, under the established norms of cricket, unusual effects (especially noticed during last couple of seasons) do not occur so frequently.

The most painful development is that the path adopted by the fixers/ brokers / conspirators/ corrupt officials/ middlemen who have been able to carry out such a volatile fraud in an amazingly easy way (so professionally executed due to lack of mechanism of scanning). All you have got to do is to find a willing middleman, route through him, trap them with an attractive offer (fairly vast range available) and get the desired results, that is, big bucks in a short time...pretty neat.

The modus operandi adopted by this clever lot is very calculative yet very simple. Instead of making a hefty betting based on the end result on the completion of 40 overs, it is safer to put the stake on an over of merely 6 balls, which proves really conclusive. This became necessary for them, as an ever existing possibility and scope of a sudden surprising action by any player might change the end result for the fixers and could prove fatal for the ringmaster indulged in money making.

However the concerned agencies are trying to pacify the situation by making the routine statements (on the pattern of established politicians, portraying that the necessary action will be taken against the guilty, etc.). They also mention about their limitations & role to prevent the recurrence of such things in the future. But honestly, nobody is impressed. Though it has become my religious duty to extend gratitudes for the police for cracking such a dangerous network, but the emerging question in everybody’s mind is that who and how many players the fixers have approached & how many of them have really shown interest. So much has already been written on the sequence of events occurred, but in short, I intend to mention a few of the gross negative impacts of this unwarranted conspiracy:
  1. This has resulted in downgrading of the morale to an alarmingly low level, be it players, teams, management, BCCI, fans, media, etc.
  2. This has proved a shockingly big blow for the overall popularity of cricket being seen after the launch of IPL
  3. The worst is that it has shattered the image of IPL, BCCI, cricket and most importantly the image of mother India in the whole world
  4. The possible financial losses may prove larger than life, owing to the fact that the funding through TV rights, sponsorships, bidding, advertisement, tickets and merchandise, which is necessary for organising the event at this grand scale, might not last.
Last but not the least, the trust, faith, spirit & belief lost by the media and the fans will never be the same again ever. This is high time that we all sit together and put in honest efforts to revive the spirit of cricket as well as the millions of youngsters who want to pursue it as their career.

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