Investigating cricket

AFTER A BOUT of intense public pressure, the CBI has been finally enlisted to clean up the game of cricket. Whether India's premier investigating agency will make us any the wiser about the match- fixing allegations is open to doubt. But there is no disputing the fact that the CBI is better equipped than any other agency to handle such a probe. Given the international dimensions of the match-fixing phenomenon, only an agency with both the resources and the experience to conduct inquiries abroad is equipped to investigate the scandal. Moreover, it is far better that the cricket authorities - whether in the form of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) or some other body - are kept away from the probe. One result of the rash of allegations (many of them seemingly unfounded) is that virtually no organisation connected with cricket has escaped the finger of suspicion. In this context, it is much better that the matter has been left to a totally independent agency.

That the CBI would be engaged to conduct the probe was on the cards ever since the recent and much-publicised meeting between the Union Ministry of Sports and the BCCI, during which the majority of the participants raised this very demand. With the BCCI agreeing to back any step the Government may take - thus reversing the long-standing impression that it was reluctant to get to the bottom of the match-fixing mess - the decks were cleared for the conduct of an independent probe. The statement made in Parliament by the Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, Mr. S. S. Dhindsa, indicates that the CBI inquiry will be broad- based and open-ended. There has been no attempt to restrict the terms of the probe. If anything, it appears that the CBI has been called in to scrutinise much more than match-fixing since Mr. Dhindsa has specifically said the inquiry will also cover a controversial award of telecast rights to a foreign company.

The CBI has been entrusted with an extraordinarily difficult task. Most of the allegations about Indian cricketers relate to match-fixing deals struck a long time ago. At the best of times, it is difficult to establish financial trails when money changes hands in cash. It would require enormous effort - and possibly also some luck - to conclusively establish that a certain match, which was played some years ago, was fixed by certain cricketers for a certain sum. What the CBI may find easier to do is to crack the ring of bookmakers and investigate just at whose bidding they are acting. In the murky world of match-fixing, one thing is clear as day: the bookmakers identified so far are only pawns in this game.

The fact that an agency such as the CBI is on the job is likely to deter those who are in the bribery/match-fixing business. This is an important consequence of engaging an independent agency to investigate the phenomenon and it is something of a shame that it was not done earlier. Now that the Government has assured protection to all those who provide information about match- fixing, there is no longer any defence for making incomplete or half-baked allegations which no one can verify. There has been a rash of such allegations in recent times and it would be a welcome thing if this were to end. No purpose will be served when someone claims knowledge of a match-fixing deal and then either refuses to identify the cricketer who is purportedly guilty or does so only through vague allusions. The information gleaned by the Delhi police, which implicated former South African captain Hansie Cronje, constituted the first conclusive evidence of match-fixing. If the CBI can throw more light on this ugly phenomenon which has brought cricket into disrepute, it will make a real contribution to the game.

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Section  : Opinion
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