The Shadow Game: Match fixing and Betting Scandals rock Indian Cricket

As a fan of the Indian Cricket team and the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) Chennai Super Kings (CSK) franchise, I was extremely surprised (and, a little angry) when news broke, in 2013, about CSK’s owner being potentially involved in betting and match fixing. For those of you unaware, betting is illegal in India and carries heavy fines and imprisonment if you are caught indulging. So, it does not stretch one’s imagination that something like match fixing would go hand in hand with betting.

Indian police arrested Gurunath Meiyappan, CSK’s team principal, in May 2013 following the conclusion of the sixth edition of the IPL, after investigating his links to previously arrested bookies. For me, this came out of nowhere and made no sense, mainly because of CSK’s on field success since the IPL’s inception till date. CSK is arguably the IPL’s best performing franchise having been crowned champions twice in 5 finals appearances and fielding Indian Cricket’s most popular player (and national team Captain) in M S Dhoni. The arrest of CSK’s owner came following the arrest of three players (including a national team player) from the Rajastan Royals franchise.

As a follower of Indian Cricket this back to back blow takes me back to the year 2000 when Indian Cricket was rocked by a match fixing scandal which resulted in the permanent ban of then India Captain Mohammed Azaruddin and a 5 year ban for popular batsman Ajay Jadeja, leaving the sport’s reputation in shambles, in India. Since then, I’ve watched (and, cheered) India recover admirably and become giants in the sport, culminating in their World Cup triumph in 2011, the pinnacle achievement in Cricket. This blow will surely bring back the uproar that was caused by the previous scandal, and at a time when the highest authority in world cricket has inducted the head of the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI)- N Srinivasan (whose son-in-law is Mr. Meiyappan) to be its next President...

-By Ajay Venkataraman 

Read part two of The Shadow Game Monday on the Atlantic Post Blog.

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