It was a night when the BCCI, “the richest cricketing body in the world”, was brought to its knees.
On Tuesday, the Justice Lodha commission announced its verdict and the quantum of punishment for spot-fixing and betting scam accused Gurunath Meiyappan, former Team Principle of the Chennai Super Kings and Raj Kundra, Co-owner of the Rajasthan Royals.
In a path-breaking verdict, Meiyappan and Kundra have been banned for life from all cricketing activities, and both their IPL franchises face a two-year suspension. India Cements, one of the key investors in Chennai Super Kings is planning to move the Supreme Court seeking relief.
The purity of the game has been affected by the actions of India Cements and CSK. Fans have been cheated.
– Justice Lodha, former Chief Justice, Supreme Court of India
Former Indian Cricket captain Sunil Gavaskar went on to tell NDTV, that N Srinivasan’s commitment to the game of cricket cannot be doubted and he hoped that the IPL verdict did not turn into a witch-hunt.
Here’s an analysis of the debates across the news channels on prime time.
Times Now: Is it Time to Scrap the Indian Punting League?
The verdict was out and the questioning began with the promos of the prime time discussions. The one on Times Now asked,
What is the point of a six-team IPL? Is it time to shut down and clean up the game of cricket?
That was the line of discussion that Arnab Goswami decided to pursue. Times now caught up with ICC Chairman and former BCCI chief N Srinivasan, the father-in-law of Gurunath Meiyappan, he didn’t say much before rolling up his window, but he said enough.
The whole matter with India Cements has been blown out of proportion.. We will deal with it in the Supreme Court…
– N. Srinivasan, Chairman, ICC to Times Now
Times Now began its debate by putting 5 questions out there to kickstart the discussion.
1. How did Rahul Dravid not know anything when three of his team mates were arrested?
2. How did Dhoni say that Gurunath Meiyappan had nothing to do with cricketing affairs?
3. What punishment will the BCCI face for giving Meiyapan and Kundra a clean chit?
4. How can a business-savvy BCCI say that it never tried to find out the financial links of the IPL teams?
5. Now that it is deep, so deep in muck, is it time to just scrap the Indian Punting League?
Arnab Goswami began with his questions to Himanshu Roy, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) who was the officer in-charge of the investigation carried out by Mumbai Police.
Here’s a paraphrased excerpt.
Arnab: Were you frustrated when the BCCI gave themselves a clean chit?
Roy: I must admit that one did feel that people in important positions in the game could have handled the situations a little more honourably...did some self introspection.
Arnab: Is it disappointing that the greats of Indian cricket did not say a word?
Roy: I don’t want to name anyone. The reaction of the establishment was disappointing. As you said, they gave themselves a clean chit. It was disappointing.
NDTV: Swachh IPL Abhiyaan?
Barkha Dutt on The Buck Stops Here spoke to Justice Mudgal, who led the committee that cracked down on the entire spot-fixing and betting scandal on the orders of the Supreme Court.
Here’s a paraphrased excerpt,
Barkha Dutt: Even the intervention of celebrity owners needs to go for a review. What is fundamentally wrong with the BCCI? The BCCI gave a clean chit to Meiyappan.
Justice Mudgal: It depends on who the chairman was.
Barkha Dutt: The chairman was Srinivasan, the father-in-law of Gurunath Meiyappan.
Justice Mudgal: Yes, but I think now the BCCI will look at it differently. I’m not concerned with any one person. I’m concerned with the game of cricket. And I think that needs to be reviewed.
Barkha Dutt: You did believe it needs further investigation. So it’s not just about the owners but also about the players. What made you submit such a confidential report? Are you saying that some people in that list need to be investigated further?
Justice Mudgal: I wouldn’t like to say anything about that.
Pradeep Magazine, Sports Advisor of Hindustan Times, added a comment to the NDTV debate saying,
What IPL has done is it privatised cricket and we are seeing what’s happening. It is the BCCI that is responsible for what’s happening.
India Today: Is the BCCI, as we Know it, over?
Alongside on India Today, Rajdeep Sardesai put it simply when he said, “Justice Lodha has shown the BCCI that it’s time to end your private cosy club”.
Sardesai asked, “Is the BCCI as know it over?”
Sports journalist and cricket historian Boria Majumdar who was part of the panel responded.
The BCCI knows that the writing is on the wall. If they don’t change they will not know what will hit them.
Gaurav Kalra, Senior Editor of ESPNCricinfo raised a pertinent point.
He asked, “How can Srinivasan after all the allegations win the elections, 29-0?”.
The statement brought into perspective how the BCCI has been wrought with red-tape, and how the same way of functioning cannot continue.
Shailendra Singh, Joint Managing Director of Percept, added,
I don’t think there’s any sympathy for the BCCI anymore. The fans really want clean contest. Because cricket belongs to the fans of the sport.
Most of the panelists agreed to Singh’s statement.
It’s an exemplary punishment. The root cause of the problem was ultimately illegal betting. The only question is betting. What are we going to do about betting? You even had reports of other players trying to fix a game. Either you legalise betting and or you crack down heavily. You crack down on the bookies. You have to realise that the laundering of the money takes place in Dubai. It’s all about betting and nothing else. What we need to focus on is how do you stop betting?
– Mahesh Jethmalani, Supreme Court lawyer
Kunal Pradhan, Deputy Editor, India Today, summed up the debate by saying, “Here in this case, betting is a window into a very large murky world. Now it’s time to clean it up.”
The discussions might not bring actual change in the way a BCCI or an IPL function at a basic level. But former cricketers, eminent members of the judiciary and even journalists on these debate panels sure did their part asking pertinent questions.
One can only hope that they have managed to set the record straight on where we stand when it comes to these cosy clubs threatening to destroy the gentlemen’s sport.
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