Beyond boundaries

December 5, 2000, in its own enigmatic way will mark a milestone in Indian cricket. It is the day when it was finally acknowledged, with the apportioning of punishment, that matchfixing is indeed a crime. It is also a day marked by immense sadness over the disgraced exit of a few men who in their own inimitable ways guided the game in the closing decades of the twentieth century. So for all the suspicions raised by the BCCI’s action in enforcing bans of cricketers without so much as a word about the administrators, who for years offered a deaf ear to a chorus of cautionary words that something was not quite cricket, for all the criticism of the BCCI in the CBI report that the Board has conveniently sought to sweep under the carpet, perhaps it is a moment to dwell upon the sad, sad tale of a once wristy maestro.

As Neville Cardus once put it, what separates cricket from other more sporty sports is that its slow pace, its laidback routine, allow time for character to reveal itself. It is a difference, he implied, that is reflected in the fact that we “remember not the scores and the results after years; it is the men who remain in our minds, in our imagination”. How will the passage of time reconcile the life ban on Azhar with memories of that longago winter day when he began bewitching cricket fans with his wristy elegance? What asterisks, inserting his pathetic admissions of guilt quoted in the CBI report, will have to be added to his long record as India’s most successful captain? What could have impelled Azhar to play villain in his very own fairytale? Therein lies the tragedy of cricket today. The alleged deeds of Azhar and company have forever cast doubts about the defining quality of the sport according to Cardus. Now that bookmakers’ part-time job as cricket coaches has been revealed, no longer will thegame be viewed as a repository of universal values and traditions. Certainly, millions will continue to follow every yorker, every skier, every nuance, but our imagination, our minds, are bound to be wary of crediting their executors with sincerity, with character. Maybe this nineteenth century game will actually be about winning and losing, maybe results are all that will matter.

If gratitude for this transformation must be expressed to Azhar and his co-accused, responsibility for it is definitely not limited to them. And if Indian cricket is to be rescued from this sordid phase, much needs to be done. Announcing the bans is not enough; the BCCI’s disciplinary committee must also address the doubters. The Board must answer why it has acted with relative alacrity vis-a-vis players while seeking to rubbish the charges levelled against its members in the same CBI report. It must, in fact, answer why millions should continue to repose faith in its ability to give direction to cricket when it has failed on so many counts: In guarding the integrity of the sport, in nurturing talent. The saga that began when Manoj Prabhakar hurled something of a boomerang has still to come full circle.