Footloose

Not quite knowing how to deal with so acute a problem, somebody chanced upon the idea of amnesty8217; and gave false assurances 8212; which became known only after the confessions tumbled out 8212; that no action would be taken against those came out with the truth. Two Chicago Sox players, a star pitcher Eddie Cicotte and Shoeless8217; Joe Jackson admitted quot;fixingquot; some matches. The two and six others were immediately suspended.

The following season, in 1921, the eight were tried on fixing charges but let off due to lack of evidence.

Those were the days when baseball players openly mixed with gamblers and dubious characters, who it was said, helped players add to their meagre8217; incomes with gifts8217; et al. But the people who ran the game were scared of taking extreme measures fearing a dip in gate money.

Fortunately, a few team owners got together and decided they had to set up a mechanism to stem the rot. They appointed an all-powerful commissioner, Keensaw Mountain Landis, a former federal court judge. Landis8217; first act was to uphold the suspension of the eight let off in 1921. His statement: quot;Regardless of the verdict of the juries, no player who throws a ballgame, no player that undertakes or promises to throw a ballgame, no player that sits in conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing the game are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will never sic play professional baseball.quot;

Soon after, another 11 players were banned outright, four retired players were implicated in past scandals and another dozen were subject to various bans for damaging the integrity of the game.

The World Series has as its commissioner now, Bud Selig, who is paid more than two million dollars a year. His powers are as sweeping as Landis8217; eight decades ago and his position is seen as one of the most important in American sport. So fixing a game finishes your career and so does betting, even on your own team. It a life ban without appeal!

Despite such strong controls, baseball still fears betting and bookies. Back in the 1980s, Pete Rose was one of the finest players in the sport and was even elected to the Hall of Fame. But in 1989, it was discovered that Rose was a compulsive gambler. The then commissioner, Bart Giamatti, started an investigation which revealed that Rose consorted8217; with known bookies and drug dealers. Worse, Rose bet on baseball!

Giamatti banned Rose for life and excluded him from the Hall of Fame. Andyes, what I forgot to tell you was that Rose always backed his own team to win!

And now onto cricket. It is well documented that cricketers do bet: Imran Khan and his team backed their own side; Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee bet on their team losing from an improbable situation and they did; Shane Warne, Mark Waugh and Hansie Cronje admitted taking money from dubious characters; and all our Indian cricketers consort8217; with people their mothers would never have approved of. Our cricketers meet them in lavish parties, get lucrative multinational contracts and gifts through them, join them for a workout in the gym. Then some of these dubious8217; characters get shot on the streets. And we still talk of cricket being a noble game.

It is time cricket took a lesson from baseball, appoint a commissioner of sorts, like Landis back in 1920s or Selig now. Even the NBA has commissioners. Cricket has grown, unmanageably as we realise now, but at no time did the powers that be in the sport realise the need to build a mechanism that could also keep the sport in check.

V Krishnaswamy can be contacted at swamyndf.vsnl.net.in