"Something suspect is going on.” New Zealand columnist blasts Indian cricket

MS Dhoni of India

Following India’s mauling by the Black Cats, questions and suspicions of wrong doing have been raised by the New Zealand media.

In a recent column written by journalist Mark Reason for Stuff.co.nz, named “McCullum deserved better than India’s effort”, he tries to formulate a conspiracy theory to get his head around the dismal performance (especially fielding) of, apparently, one of the best teams in the world. Reason has laid out the stats for everyone to see – India, in the last six innings, have dropped an astounding 11 catches, of which 3 were in Brendon McCullum‘s knock of 302, which eventually cost India the series.

Reason wrote, “Only two conclusions are possible. Either this Indian team is one of the worst fielding teams in the history of the game – possible, very possible, and a national disgrace if true – or something suspect is going on.”

Few can deny the journalist’s claim, considering India is ranked number 1 in ODIs and number 2 in Tests, and has some of the best individual fielders the nation and the world has ever seen.

Despite the burning desire of a cricket enthusiast to call the game clean, Reason wrote, facts cannot be ignored.

He spoke about the recent IPL spot fixing scandal that took the cricketing fraternity by storm, and the Mudgal report, which highlighted the salient points of the subsequent investigation, which was hardly paid attention to.

Apart from one solitary comment by Rajeev Shukla, the BCCI has not made a single statement in relation to the findings of the report, which shockingly, have named 6 capped Indian internationals, including captain MS Dhoni.

Reason added that the administrative boards are not playing their part in stamping out corruption. He takes us back to the 1990s, when Cricket Australia tried to hide Mark Waugh and Shane Warne‘s fine for providing pitch and weather information to bookies, and the 2000 CBI report which stated the BCCI officials must have known something fishy was going on but did little to stop it.

If we are to curtail this deep rooted corruption in the game we love so much, the cricket administrators have to step up and be counted, and lay out a marker by meeting out appropriate punishment to the offenders.