Mammon has hit a fixer

But to place Cronje against the universal landscape of crime and punishment is to miss the nuances of this specific case. Even with gradual erosion of values, there still were arenas where the air was not polluted.

The cricket field was one such arena. Once the monsoon rains broke the long spell of torrid summers, our cricket scrap books were out because by about September the first news would start filtering in of the form of the fast bowlers, the spinners, the batsmen of the visiting side for a three month tour of the country, when five tests and numerous th-ree-day fixtures against regional and assorted tea-ms would be play-ed.

It was a lei-surely build-up to a crescendo, and by the time the tour was over, so-me cricketing reputation had taken a beating, while new faces swam into our ken as tomorrow8217;s heroes.

Next year, the Indian team would prepare to leave for England, Australia or the West Indies. And again, for three months, we were riveted on the fortunes of our cricketers playing overseas.

quot;They8217;ve given me the licence to print my own moneyquot;, Lord Thomson thundered on receiving licences to open regional radio station in U.K. But the money Lord Thomson made was meagre compared to the bonanza raked up by Kerry Packer once he discovered how amenable cricket was to the allurements of television. Every spectator now had a vantage point superior even to that commanded by the umpire. The replays opened up a new dimension. Shortening the game to 50 overs a side in floodlit after office hours provided comfort, and you had a mix which gave cricket an exponential marketability.

In the past skills did not tra-nslate themselves into wealth. Poets, painters, pl-ayers could become heroes without becoming wealthy. In those days mechanisms did not exist to translate wide public popularity into instant sale of tooth pastes, shampoos or cola beverages.

But in more recent times everyone with recognisable skills was making more money as commercialisation and the consumer society proceeded hand in hand. This procession did attract sporadic critical attention worldwide. A film like Grande Bouffe was as direct an attack on the consumer society as the French could manage in the 70s. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the mantra of globalisation gave added punch to the market as the sole arbiter.

In India the resistance to the consumer society should have been even sharper because, until not very long ago, the society8217;s entire intellectual stance was anti-wealth. It was almost anti-intellectual to be wealthy.

Sara-swati, the Goddess of Learning, was the most sought after for those who placed a premium on a life of the mind. Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth, was welcome, but never accorded primacy in life8217;s overall context.

Cronje is a victim exactly of the forces to which the sanctity of our cricket season has fallen victim. Remember what I had said at the very outset. From November till February as schoolboys we were immersed either in a team visiting us or our cricket team visiting a country, such as Australia and the West Indies, where cricket could be played during those months.

England, Australia, even South Africa and the West Indies have retained their quot;homequot; seasons. Visit England from May to August and one or two cricket teams will adorn the quot;domesticquot; season. But our cricket season has been bartered away to the market. Our players play the year round without any regard to the domestic season. Like circus animals, they must perform the year round so that the Board and they can make money.

The purpose of life, we were taught, was the pursuit of happiness. Unbridled Mammonism has made that dictum stand on its head: the purpose of life is the accumulation of wealth. Hansie Cronje is the victim of this incantation. He is not the only one.