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Cricket is a wonderful sport. And as Indians, that’s a fact etched into hearts and minds alike, a fact passed forward from generation to generation, along with the folklore of the past and the promise of the future. As the popular song goes, ‘we don’t like cricket, we love it’. And that’s an understatement.
India woke up last morning to the news that three cricketers, one of them being Test player Sreesanth, part of a T20 as well as 50-over World Cup winning side, have been caught red-handed trying to earn a quick buck by spot-fixing. Love is a funny thing. It’s the greatest feeling when you experience it, and it can kill you when it inevitably betrays you. It’s not the first time India has been stuck in a web of corruption, but that’s exactly why it hurts. We’re continuously taught to learn from our mistakes, but when our demi-god heroes can’t, then what hope do we have?
Lovers of the sport have begun questioning the game’s credibility while purists silently smirk smugly at IPL fans, but even they’re afraid of saying ‘I told you so’.
A statement thrown around on social media websites and common conversation alike is ‘I’m losing faith in the sport’. We definitely take our sport seriously, and are guilty of producing the most melodramatic statements at any given time, but this is a clear case of ignorance.
I repeat when I say that cricket is a wonderful sport. Popular talk show host Jon Stewart said this after the horrific 9/11 attacks in the US – “there were 9 people who plotted the attack, and hundreds who went in and helped the injured. I’d take those odds any day”.
One rotten egg does not spoil the basket, as is popularly believed. If that was the case, then every man is a rapist, every footballer is a cheat, every German is a vicious dictator, and no shoe will ever fit. It’s time we grow up and start looking at things responsibly. Sreesanth, Chandila and Chavan were caught exploiting the game. Cricket is the victim, not the problem. Greed is the problem, money is the problem, incompetence is the problem. Cricket is not losing its credibility, certain cricketers are.
Crime is part and parcel of society and life. Regardless of a punishment being a 20 rupee fine or a 100 year jail term, crimes will take place. Punishing those responsible is only a short term solution. The truth is, these disparaging elements will be a constant for the sport, and any sport for that matter. There is a need to crackdown on it and a need to educate the players about the shortcomings of crime.
‘The shortcomings of crime’. Sounds like one of those chapters you want to gloss over and scoff at in your Moral Science textbooks. But people are failing at it every single day of the year.
The IPL introduced glitz, glamour and entertainment to us and to the cricketers. If anybody during the time of Bradman and Hobbs would’ve said that cricket should be adorned with fireworks and skimpily dressed women cheering every shot, he’d be deemed a lunatic and sent to an asylum. But that’s what the IPL is, and it’s not backing away from the term either. It has brought the lunacy into cricket, and lunacy always gets attention. The blatant show of it shocks many, but there are no prizes to guessing what shock gets you – attention. And do you know what else gets attention? Money.
The IPL was never a cricket tournament. When it was announced, it was hidden under the veil of words like ‘cricket’ and ‘cricketers’. The truth is, the IPL is a business proposition, where everyone wants a piece of the pie. Young, domestic players were suddenly exposed to large bundles of cash, amounts they believed they’d never see. Give a child candy, and he’ll only ask for more. That’s what seems to be happening with the IPL.
However, even though I’m not the biggest fan of the tournament, blaming the tournament is too simple an accusation. Of course you blame the IPL, the eternal scapegoat that it has become. And I’d be more than willing to accept the charge, but it takes focus away from what the problem actually is and that is human greed. Far more complex and far more dangerous than anything we’ll ever come across.
Cricketers are human beings. As humans, we are prone to slipping into sins which we will eventually repent. Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan aren’t any different. They were handsomely paid for the services, but yet weren’t satisfied. The issue is not with the IPL. The issue is not with cricket. It’s with the players.
