In India, watching cricket match is a second profession after the first profession of earning money to watch cricket. An average Indian spends one year of his life watching cricket. There is nothing wrong in that because It gives us a subject to interact at tea stalls, local street ground, lobby of cinema theaters and many other places. Indian Premier League ( IPL ) a T-20 format of the game gave opportunities to many players from India and from worldwide to earn the money. Starting in the year 2008 the league got huge amount of success in a small interval of time.
The league gave us star players whose name we never heard of. It gave players a kind of ex-poser which they truly deserved. However, there is other side for the league. A huge network which works day and night to convert black money into white money. Wherever huge amount of money is involved, it attracts heavyweights from all corners of the society including Mafias and bookies.
In India betting is legally banned. The casinos are banned across all the states. So the network of bookies did not have any game or thing to bet on. It was Mahalakshmi Racecourse where bookies had a chance and the horse-betting really took place a tipping point during the nineties. Then came betting for Indian national team where bookies did their business. As the technology became more advanced, the chances of fixing match became rare except for the cases of Mohammad Ajharuddin and Ajay Jadeja who were caught for match fixing.
Recent controversy in IPL where Shanthakumar Sreesanth a player of Rajasthan Royals was involved shocked the nation. Police investigation showed that how he signaled the bookies by keeping towel in his pant. Why Sreesanth and other low profile people were caught is an interesting question.
Bookies always fish a weak player. The involvement of other teams has not come in aimelight. I am sure from the history of Sreesanth that he will take the name of other players and will create controversy. I think Sreesanth is a mere victim of the game. The involvement of franchise can not be ruled out.
What concerned me was suspicious death of investigation officer Bardish Dutt and his girlfriend at Gurgaon where they were shot dead. Police have given hint that bookies were working on the instruction of oversea Mafia. If this was a case then media attention should shift on the investigation of his death.
Twitter and Facebook pages have flooded with curses directing at Sreesanth and IPL. The haters and critics of game are demanding to ban the league. Some twits also showed anger towards the politician as when cricketer commits mistake they are banned then why not politicians?
What we need to do is to have some patience let the culprit be given strongest possible punishment. Banning IPL is not a solution and it will never going to happen. We need to strengthen the vigilance so that this kind of incidences never happen. The most important would be to enjoy rest of IPL as a game not as a game of life.
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