IPL was never meant to be played on the field. By its very genetics, the real action was to happen beyond, in players’ dug-outs, platforms of cheerleaders, pavilion, parties, parleys etc. The short matches are also dwarfed by the tedious build-ups and extended post-match celebs. Cricket is incidental; it could very well have been Dhoni or Gayle playing marbles!
That these high stakes fixtures were also fixed and followed scripts is no surprise. The simulated media outrage and the feigned shock of those directly involved in it is laughable. IPL was always a Las Vegas on the move. Here you don’t just book tickets; you can also book players! When the genesis is auction, gambling is only a few more crores away. Those who lent themselves to bidding are always vulnerable to betting and beyond. In fact I would certify that the illegal fixings were more transparent than the original auctions!
This hugely popular extravaganza is paradoxically the most elitist. Just about ten big-ticket business money bags are holding this game in their vice-like grip. Only that the infamous Bombay Club’s crony capitalists have made way to fancy Cricket Clubs’ brat barons. The cliched ‘licence raj’ has also morphed into the upmarket ‘franchisee raj’! That almost all the team owners are under legal clouds or have shady financial roots makes this monopoly murkier. Add Dubai and Dawood and we have a truly dirty picture that however does not bare its wares but hides them behind a facade of glitz and glamour.
While the frenzied fans are focussed on the game, these bosses and their invisible sponsors have their sights way beyond cricket. This all powerful super club is unlikely to let the larger game, nay gamble, of IPL slip away, give or take a match. Businessmen with bad blood between them can still bury the hatchet and become buddies if big money is on the table. That’s the credo of all cartels and carpetbaggers. So, even without SC ratification, we know that IPL, like the UPA, is scandal-proof. It is too powerful, precious and profitable to be dumped.
The allusion to UPA rings the mafia bell. The AICC, pardon, the BCCI can teach a lesson or two to the Dawoods and Don Corleones of our era. No gangster or godfather can conceive the kind of shady schemes, cover-ups and subterfuge that the guardians of the gentleman’s game have unleashed. On those counts, the BCCI bosses can beat the bookies hands down. On record, the BCCI is a Trust. But it has nothing to do with that T word. It is an openly secret society that is answerable to none and operates on a divine right basis to lord over all of Indian cricket, a public sport. The few ‘vice’ men at the helm control the fate of franchisees, fans and the fancied stars, sans any scrutiny by Government, law or RTI. They can make or break lives, of curators, to cricketers to commentators to clubs to commercial concerns, by sheer whim. And with the entire populace now hooked to IPL, the BCCI’s dark, devilish shadow engulfs the whole nation.
The vested interests of the BCCI’s head honchos overrule basic legal and moral principles of conflict of interest. The maze is mind-boggling. BCCI President Srinivasan not only helps himself to a team in the auction but also secures the prized scalp of the Indian captain Dhoni to head that team. And Dhoni is now also VP of India Cements, owner of CSK. KSrikkanth, then Chairman of BCCI’s Selection Committee was also the brand ambassador for Srinivasan’s team. Not that the two could say no. The team incidentally is always a favourite. CSK CEO (and Srinivasan’s son-in-law) is now sought to be quizzed in the fixing scandal. The BCCI-appointed enquiry commission that answers to, who else, Srinivasan will now have to check on his son-in-law and ‘his’ team! Yes, there is only one Srinivasan.
Or consider Rajiv Shukla, IPL Chairman and VP BCCI. This Cong RS MP is also Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs. He was the one seen frantically gesturing to the RS Chairman to foreclose the session two days in advance against all norms. And why not? Parli is dispensable but IPL is not. (Ask the people!) An outfit headed by a Central minister is neck-deep in muck, a political scandal by itself. But with the heads of BCCI wearing many hats, who would dare go against them? And we are talking of getting to the bottom of it all when it is the ‘top’ that is at the bottom of it all!
Odds favour BCCI and its bosses to slip through. Our laws are too naive to handle such slick deals. Its long arms (Mumbai and Delhi cops) are at one another’s throats instead of fixing the fixers. Of course, we can bet on the CBI to unravel the mystery. But bookies advise otherwise! Until at least the CBI is fixed, either way!
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