Published: May 24, 2013, 02:55 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 13, 2014, 08:08 AM (IST)
Ashwin Srinivasan (left) and his father N Srinivasan. DNA photo.
From sport to sensation to soap opera: The IPL Spot-Fixing issue has turned cricket into a sideshow as the focus has shifted to the sound and fury associated with the murky aspects of betting, gambling, the good life and its murky underbelly, writes Arunabha Sengupta.
Glitz, glamour, dancing girls, with some occasional snatches of star cricketers and gigantic sixes… Late-night parties, flashy cine stars and Gangnam steps. Finally bookies, gamblers, fixers and spies. Famous cricketers found in the arms of Bollywood starlets, alcohol flowing and passions throbbing. The ‘spoilsport’ policemen swoop down to nab them for spot-fixing.
Cricket has been splashed across all pages — from sports to entertainment, from gossip to editorial, from business to cartoons, from Page One to Page Three.
And now comes the twist in the Narayan Srinivasan tale — son Ashwin and son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan. The rants of an angry scion of a business empire against a scheming brother-in-law. Curious points of view about flights being refuelled in Dubai. “Can’t powerful papa get a bigger plane?” Who are the golfing buddies of the supremo of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)? What made Srinivasan relent after foaming at the mouth when matrimonial alliances were being fixed between daughter Rupa and the non-Brahmin Meiyappan.
From somewhere, Vishy Anand got pushed into an uncomfortable square, before Meiyappan checked him to capture the queen. Were Ashwin’s drug addiction and homosexuality used by Meiyappan to tighten his grip on Srinivasan’s empire?
One cannot ask for a bigger drama and spectacle than the one that is going on now. From sport to sensation to soap opera, featuring the dirtiest linen of the rich and famous, the good life abundantly exposed to reveal murkiest secrets.
It’s bubbling scandals out there, in the most cataclysmic cricketing cauldron ever, with media accelerating the filth like a giant garbage dump on anabolic steroids. Underworld, industrialists, stars and star-sons, middlemen and mafia… cricketers are almost side characters in this reality show. We have to wade through the morass of muck-raking mess to get a glimpse of a ball bowled.
Interest, whatever be its form or motive, has seldom peaked in this way. We Indians actually love the drama. Every fan and fanatic is immersed in the minute by minute updates on scandals, the tell-tale tottering of yet another titan. Even the proponents of reverse snobbery, who have forever proclaimed cricket to be beneath their supposed dignity, have come rushing back to indulge in the game of petty pot-shots and mud-slinging. All the while, the aficionados continue to scan the situation with bated breath, traversing through the confounded noise, straining their ears to hear the reassuring sound of the willow striking the leather that tells one that God is in heaven all is okay with the world.
It remains to be seen what stands to emerge from this madness and chaos. Will cricket come out purified, fumigated, cleansed? Chances are remote. Betting and fixing are older than the game. The stricter regulations and scrutiny become, the more innovative turn the methods of deception, of breaking the system. It has always been the case, in every field of human endeavour — cricket is no exception.
However, can one get the focus back on the game? On the men who hold the bats and hurl down the balls? Instead of thumbing through sports pages, and being affronted with Vindoo Dara Singh and the likes of him splashed across in revolting spreads?
It does not seem likely, at least during the remainder of the Indian Premier League (IPL). And one does fear that all the bells and whistles will continue to dog the game when the action shifts to the Champions Trophy.
Perhaps we have to wait till the Ashes gets under way, before we can enjoy a major cricketing event as precisely that — a cricketing event devoid of ridiculous spicy and glitzy freeloaders, where the game can remain exclusive to a corner of the sports page.
(Arunabha Sengupta is a cricket historian and Chief Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He writes about the history and the romance of the game, punctuated often by opinions about modern day cricket, while his post-graduate degree in statistics peeps through in occasional analytical pieces. The author of three novels, he can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/senantix
