It was May 16 when cricket world, which was otherwise busy in speculating who makes it to the IPl play-offs and who not, was rocked by the scandal of spot-fixing right in the morning.
As a sleepy country woke up to the breaking news of Rajasthan Royals’ Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan being arrested by the Delhi Police on the charges of spot-fixing, the game was once again face-to-face with its most-dreaded ghost of fixing. The police claimed to have been taping phone calls of many involved with the IPl in any manner.
The trail that led to the trio and many bookies and betting rackets all across the country being arrested till now, however, led to many more revelations. legendary wrestler and actor Dara Singh’s son — Vindoo — seen with MS Dhoni’s wife Sakshi in several matches was arrested for his alleged links to bookies. With his wife’s name coming under cloud of suspicion over her acquaintance with Vindoo, even MS Dhoni could not hide his tension as the India and Chennai Super Kings skipper could not afford even a smile during the side’s match against Mumbai Indians on May 21.
Vindoo’s call records led the investigation to BCCI president N Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan. The police revealed that the two had been in regular touch. Mumbai police then issued summons and after days of hiding the now famous son-in-law surrendered on May 24. Moreover, CSK, who till then had listed Meiyappan as the team owner wasted no moment in updating the website as did India Cements by issuing a statement that he was neither owner nor CEO/team principal of CSK.
Even Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf was quickly withdrawn from the Champions Trophy by the ICC as soon as reports hinted towards his involvement.
But what added to the saddening incident was the BCCI’s detached and half-hearted efforts to tackle the issue. Rather than taking a strong stand against the matters of fixing, all the BCCI chose to do was appoint a three-member probe panel to be headed by Ravi Shastri. And, unsurprisingly, this panel would submit its report to the board, hence, Srinivasan, whose role as the BCCI president and the India Cements’ vice-president and managing director has also come under criticism as CSK are owned by the company.
The top man of the most powerful cricketing body in the world went a step further when he announced that he won’t quit as the BCCI president as he had “done nothing wrong”. Srinivasan added that the appointed commission would probe Meiyappan’s role with CSK and that he would not be a part of the committee or its discussion.
All this while, the incident and whose effects Rahul Dravid compared with the emotions of a “bereavement”, failed to wake up the world body and get it into action. Even though the BCCI might be the controlling unit in all its practical sense, the ICC could have done better in trying to make an attempt to start the exercise for cleansing of the game. For, some here in the BCCI seem most reluctant to do so.
And, that resulted in national team sponsor Sahara threatening to not renew its contract till Srinivasan was at the helm. The contract ends in December 2013. After withdrawing their team Pune Warriors from the IPl, Sahara chief Subrata Roy said of Srinivasan, “The attitude of the cricket board and its boss has been very sad. Under the current circumstances, if I were in his place, I would have stepped down from the post till the time the probe is on.”