Violent mood against IPL waiting to happen

There are two statements that I constantly make these days to my close friends. I look upon them as distilled wisdom, a product of more than four decades in public life marked by the caution and conservatism that usually go with a middle-class upbringing. The first of them is that the margin for error in the world today is zero. You are stuck with the consequences of even one instance of bad judgment forever. With the possible exception of your parents or spouse, no one is going to bail you out (no pun intended) of your misfortune.

My second conviction is that even if we do not believe in ethics, we should at least be prudent and remember that despite its apparent disinterest in you, the world around is watching, and often waits for you to trip. Honesty is still the best policy, whatever the worldly wise among your friends might tell you. Fit these into the IPL scam and draw your own conclusions.

I am sorry for the young misguided cricketers now under detention, who allowed themselves to be consumed by greed and sorrier for their parents. The insatiable aficionado of cricket feels outraged and cheated; this is no doubt natural and rational. Yet, baying for these cricketers’ blood seems tribal and banal. After all, they were living in an ambience reeking with corruption and a slight loss of balance was enough to push them into the abyss of seeking what did not belong to them.

The IPL and its officials are now the whipping boys. This violent mood swing is deplorable and unsustainable. We knew that with the kind of money that was being thrown around, the bubble had to burst. Let us reconcile ourselves to the situation wherein whatever happens on an IPL evening is suspect, something that flowed out of the CBI enquiry in 2000. (It is an entirely different matter that one of those accused is now a lawmaker!). The sheen on the game will be lost once more and for a lot of times to come.

The BCCI has a lot to do by way of introspection. There has been criticism of its anti-corruption unit (ACU). The BCCI cannot build a parallel police organisation to keep an eye on delinquent cricketers. The latter can be under the ACU’s watchful eye only on the cricket field and not outside.

Following the 2000 episode, certain measures like strict access to the dressing rooms, denial of cellphones to players at the stadiums, and vetting of visitors at hotels where players stay had been brought in. My own information is that these are being strictly implemented during Tests and ODIs. I don’t know whether they were extended to IPL matches or deliberately not implemented. If they haven’t, it is a grievous omission for which the IPL Organising Committee will have to be faulted.

All these, however, become comical if players keep in touch with questionable characters during non-match days. Ultimately, it is the individual player’s strength of character that matters. Counselling by the BCCI -- something that the Board claims it is already doing -- will hardly impact a player who is determined to flout values. Finally, we believed religion could play a role in building an individual’s character. But Sreesanth has belied that trust as well. In sum, it is a bad day for cricket. Both the game and player stand diminished, what to speak of those who administer the game.

The writer is a former CBI Director who led the investigation into the 2000 match fixing scandal.