I was back on All India Radio’s Sports Scan, the half-hour bulletin of sports news, on November 6, 2011, coinciding with the opening day of the first Test in the India-West Indies cricket series. It was natural that cricket took up much of the time that the host Shivendra Chaturvedi and I devoted on the show.
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Justice Jeremey Cook touched a raw nerve when he spoke of young fast bowler Mohammed Aamer’s social background. “You come from a village background where life has been hard.. Compared with others, you were unsophisticated, uneducated and impressionable…,” he said last week when he sentenced the three cricketers and a bookmaker to imprisonment for cheating and conspiracy.
And, at once, many started using this information when painting a prototype of the cricketer who could fall prey to temptations. The sketch that emerged was one of a rustic cricketer who was poorly educated and could be easily manipulated. We seemed to forget that greed does not look at the upbringing or sociological, educational or economic background of the cricketers.
The heart sank as Justice Jeremy Cooke handed out prison terms and financial penalties to three cricketers and a bookmaker in far away London on Thursday. For the first time, cricketers were being sentenced in a court of law for being greedy as well as abetting and committing on-field misdemeanours.
Freeze frames of the events that shook the very foundations of cricket in the year 2000 came rushing back to the mind. And, at the same time, it was tough to stop oneself from wondering what would have happened had the cricketers been trapped by a sting operation in the sub-continent.
An image of the cover of the News of the World issue that told us how match-fixing continues to threaten cricket.
It is a sad commentary of the times we live in that the reaction to a British Court finding two Pakistani cricketers, the then captain Salman Butt and fast bowler Mohammed Asif, guilty of a conspiracy to cheat during a Test match in England last year has largely focussed on these players and another fast bowler, teenager Mohammed Amir. I would have liked a bit more attention to one of the most striking aspects – the cricketers being tried in a British Court.
Beyond the palest shadows of doubt, the verdict of guilty against three cricketers and an agent-bookmaker must be seen as exemplary and can send shivers down the spine of the cricket fraternity. Hopefully, cricketers around the world will rebuff bookmakers and not be lured by the glitter and glamour that appears to come along with success in the sport of their choice.
I have been familiar with the chant of Sa-chin, Sa-chin being raised at cricket ground around the world and it was unusual to hear that at the Buddh International Circuit on October 30 when cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar walked on to the track to join the Formula 1 fraternity before the start of the Grand Prix of India. Come to think of it, there was a rich variety of sound at the inaugural event last month – and no, I am not talking of the music that Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (or, Lady GaGa, if you please) made or the music that heavy metal bank Metallica did not make in Gurgaon. Over four successive days, I heard the entire range of pitches, from soft whispers to deafening roars, from delighted moans to angry groans.
Sebastian Vettel screams away to victory at the inaugural Grand Prix of India at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida on Sunday
Sebastian Vettel won more than the inaugural Airtel Grand Prix of India at the Buddh International Circuit here on Sunday – he won hearts of all Indians with a fitting tribute to this wonderful country by saying that the people here may have little (financially) but are much richer than those in Europe.
Red Bull Racing’s Vettel also showed what a humble champion he is by remembering IndyCar ace Dan Wheldon and MotoGP ace Marco Simoncelli who died on racing tracks in the past fortnight. Indeed, as India’s sporting legend Sachin Tendulkar waved the checkered flag with enthusiasm, there was considerable relief that the Grand Prix of India broke the shocking trend.
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