BCCI not trying hard enough

And so Hawkins’ book remained at home, I turned down the offer to play a small role in a film that had match-fixing as its theme and when people I didn’t know asked me questions about the game I replied with careful nothingness.

Then the Mudgal Commission happened and now the Lou Vincent revelations suggest that evil in our sport is beyond cultures and geographies. Five years ago I had said that fixing was the primary threat the IPL needed to be vigilant against (the other was calibre of team owners!) and the fact that Vincent was introduced to fixing in the ICL made me look at Hawkins’ book again as I got ready to board another flight. I am reading it now and while I expected to be disturbed, there is more to it than mere detail. Over the next two or three flights maybe I will finish it.

One sentence very early in the book caught my eye. It referred to a book written in 1851 that talked about matches being fixed and the discussions taking place in a pub at what is now the corner of Oxford Street and Argyll Street in London. The key ingredients of fixing, it said, were “greed, poverty and drink”. A hundred and sixty three years later, it still seems extremely apt. Human nature has not changed!

Relative vices

While greed and poverty will always be relative, they remain in our game even as it sees more wealth than it ever has. At the heart of both is insecurity because a cricketer’s life is short and most are either unprepared, or simply not good enough, for a post-retirement career. And as we know possession of wealth has never been a barrier to the lure for more. As for drink being in that mix of ingredients..well.. the result has always been more dangerous than the joy of partaking of it!

And so a player earning far lesser than another, in spite of playing alongside him all the time, could either be a catalyst for improvement or a breeding ground for envy. I don’t know how football manages this but it is a question the T20 leagues, still in their infancy, need to look at. You cannot pay everyone the same but you need to be extra vigilant to the effect of large differences. The IPL, in particular, needs to be wary of it.

Short, concentrated bursts of cricket, like the IPL, are particularly vulnerable for two reasons. One, because a game follows another very quickly and success and failure are not remembered for too long; and two, because players switch teams, loyalty may not be the strength it otherwise is. You play sport for joy and pride, and take the money as it comes, or you play purely for the cheque. With players playing for 3-4 different teams around the world in a year (and for different teams in different years in the IPL) the second possibility could be prevalent. When there is this diluted sense of ownership therefore, players are more likely to be unfaithful.

It is an area that the IPL, and India, must actually take the lead in, given that it is the financial capital of world cricket. With power comes this responsibility and at the first whiff of impropriety, they need to come down hard. The BCCI can argue they did precisely that by banning Sreesanth and the others almost immediately but by their opposition to the Mudgal Commission they have got the public concerned. Like all organisations they must feel the pulse of the consumers, the fans, and while the public enjoy watching the IPL, as indeed I do, there is a growing feeling that the BCCI isn’t trying hard enough to convince them that they are watching a fair contest everytime. And as more revelations, like those from Vincent and others that gave testimony, tumble out, the need to reach out to the public must grow even stronger.

The IPL is a great brand and its bond with the public must remain sacrosanct. There is greed and poverty within it, as there is skill and honesty, and it is vulnerable. If anything, the BCCI must welcome a probe into the IPL because if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear. By doing so, it will tell the people of its willingness to be open and clean.

These are, once again, difficult times for cricket. And as in the playing of it, in the running of it too, the captain must lead.

Meanwhile I look forward to reading the rest of Hawkins’ bold book. And to my effort at leaving its contents behind in the hours that I will be behind the microphone at a cricket match.