Many believe that white-collar crime thrives under the IPl's benevolent umbrella. A number of facts do seem to suggest that the belief is not misplaced
The shock waves sent countrywide by the arrest of three young cricketers for spot-fixing in Indian Premier league matches, reminded me of my column, The Death of Honour, published in The Pioneer of August 26, 2011. Dwelling on the consequences of the IPl's system of auctioning cricketers, I had written, “When one willingly accepts being auctioned, one agrees to be treated as a commodity which can be bought or sold. When the price is high and the auction is an annual business, one tries to shape oneself in a manner in which one fetches the highest price. One is not what one is, but what one's buyers want one to be. In his profound work, To Have or to BeIJ, Erich Fromm dwells at length on this phenomenon which he calls ‘the marketing personality.' The basis of moral conduct — the refusal to do what one knows to be wrong — vanishes when one is thus transformed. One is then ready to do what it takes to sells oneself.” Further, stating that “the country's performance in sports is linked to its honour and self-esteem,” I had added, “A sense of honour is critically important. It prevents a sportsperson from stooping to practices like match-fixing for money and prompts him or her to exceed the limits of his or her normal capabilities to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.”
The system of auctioning players is only one of the several things wrong with the IPl, which, put simply, stinks. And the stench is of something that is putrid beyond the ordinary limits of putridity. The harsh fact is that the manner in which the IPl functions is tantamount to a continuous, brazen and public celebration of sleaze and relegation of propriety and integrity into the dustbin of sports. The Board of Control for Cricket in India, the umbrella under the benign shade of which the tournament has waxed, has also not been without some large blots on its surface. If its president can be the owner of an IPl team — or even if he has links with the company owning it — then the whole idea of conflict of interests, which is a core concern in any discourse on propriety, becomes a non-starter in the BCCI and the IPl's universe.
Impropriety, something gentlemen avoid, is not a crime, but it helps in creating a climate in which crime is only a short step away. In fact, many aver that white-collar crime thrives under the IPl's benevolent umbrella. That they may not be entirely without basis is suggested by a number of facts including the one that several sharp questions have been asked — and none satisfactorily answered — about the source of funds of some of the companies owning participating teams. The BCCI's pronouncements and actions relating to the subject do not reflect a burning desire to stamp out such evil and restore public confidence in its administration of cricket.
One needs hardly be surprised if this, and the less than pure-as-driven-snow track records of some of the functionaries of the IPl and BCCI, has spread the message that financial rectitude is for dinosaurs and making a fast buck — even if it means deviating from the straight and narrow path into the seamy alleyways of the underworld — is entirely in order. Of course, there is the danger of getting caught. But it overtakes only the fools. Vast numbers of people, loaded with ill-gotten gains, walk free and splurge. IPl's contribution to the commoditification of women and commercialisation of sex is underlined by the presence of young girls as cheerleaders, often scantily clad and gesticulating suggestively, at matches, and disturbing allegations about prostitution and the happenings at post-match parties.
The result is a way of life that glorifies self-aggrandisement at all cost and undermines the very idea of the sense of honour that is the matrix of character. The three young cricketers indicted have been an integral part of it. They have to be punished if found guilty, but those who created an environment tailored to leading youngsters astray, must not go scot free, and the IPl should be banned from the next year.