Cricket confessional

The hearings of the King Commission on match-fixing, currently underway inSouth Africa, is turning out to be more thrilling than a top-notch cricketmatch, with reputations getting run-out by the minute. Herschelle Gibbsconfesses that he agreed to underperform during the Nagpur match in the lastIndia-South Africa season, Pieter Strydon talks of an offer that came hisway before the first Test against India in Mumbai. But what was, arguably,the most poignant confession of all was that of Henry Williams, when herevealed that he had agreed to go along with Hansie Cronje8217;s offer becausehe had a lot of respect for his captain 8220;and if he could do it whycouldn8217;t I?8221; Why not, indeed? Herein lies the tragedy of the game. When theman chosen to lead a world-class team succumbs to the crassest self-interestand greed, as Cronje did for a few dollars more, who can save cricket?Cronje, it seems, has to atone for a lot more than personal amorality.

The Commission is serving an important purpose, of that there can be littledoubt. As has often been observed, confession is next only to innocence, andexercises of this kind demonstrate a will on the part of the United CricketBoard UCB to punish the guilty and set things right. Already Cronje haslost his captaincy and a place in the team, and could stand debarred fromplaying the game for his country if the Commission finds him guilty. Gibbs,meanwhile, has been ruled out for South Africa8217;s Sri Lankan tour which is totake place next month. UCB managing director, Ali Bacher, has made it clearthat Gibbs one of South Africa8217;s most talented players will have to facean inquiry as soon as possible. Pakistan, too, went through similarexercises even if they meant that some of the country8217;s most formidablenames in the game had to be punished or at least severely reprimanded.

One-time Pakistan skipper, Salim Malik, now faces a life ban and anotherformer captain, Wasim Akhram, although not pronounced guilty, hasnevertheless been asked to pay a hefty fine for his misdemeanours.

All this begs the question as to why allegations of match-fixing in Indiahave only been met by a stony silence. Why haven8217;t the canaries begun tosing in India? True, the CBI and Enforcement Directorate is looking intosome cases, and the income tax authorities are making their owninquiries.

True, the PMO has had a brief confabulation with members of theBoard of Control for Cricket in India BCCI and a few cases have come upbefore a high court here or there. But where is the national will to slaythe demon in our midst? The BCCI, which has shown an abject inability toeither control cricket in India or confront the individuals who havedestroyed it, prefers to bury its head in the sand and wait for the wholecontroversy to blow over. But the worthies in this august body shouldrealise that this won8217;t happen. Even if the unconventional investigation ofa Manoj Prabhakar is to be discounted, hardly a day goes by without freshevidence surfacing of Indian involvement in cricket sleaze both on and offthe pitch. While Australian Dean Jones has spoken of a certain Indianapproaching him to fix a match, South African Pat Symcox talks of a8220;foreign player8221; who made him an offer during the 1996 tour. There are nowunsightly bumps on that carpet under which we keep brushing stuff, and theyare growing bigger all the time.