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DEAR REDIFF

In a fix over betting

Hemant Kenkre

The most disgusting piece of news that one read last week revolves around the skipper of the Indian cricket team, Sachin Tendulkar, being asked by the mandarins of the BCCI to explain his position on match fixing.

he writer, G Rajaraman of the Hindustan Times, has done a great job by exposing this stupid move by the BCCI and, in doing so, has brought to the notice of cricket fans the startling fact that the BCCI does not trust its own captain.

The latest story on 'match fixing' had its genesis in a piece written by the sportswriter of The Pioneer, who did a sensational little number on how he was approached by certain bookies and 'offered' Rs 4 million to get close to the Indian players and try and coerce them into fixing matches.

The expose gave enough fodder to prominent ex-players who promptly described exactly how such illegal activities were carried out, and all but mentioned that cricketers had succumbed to the temptation of the forbidden fruit.

As expected, most of the media went to town on the possible links of cricketers with the betting mafia, and cricket pundits were asked their opinion on the possibilities of this link rather than on India's chances in the then impending Independence Cup.

Rajaraman's piece has also mentioned the reaction of the Indian skipper, who felt it was beneath his dignity to even comment on this topic. Tendulkar's reluctance comes in sharp contrast to the cocktail circuit, where the presumed 'links' between the betting mafia and cricketers past and present are a standard topic on the eve of, and during, any major tournament.

Funnily, the betting topic invariably surfaces when India locks horns with its arch rival Pakistan. And, more often than not, it is always the losing side which ends up having been 'bribed'. Ex-skipper Wasim Akram had to face the accusations of his countrymen when he returned empty-handed from Bangalore after the World Cup fixture against India. That Asif Iqbal was supposed to be close to an Indian betting badshah was 'revealed' only after his team lost to a better Indian side. And equally inevitably, it is only the disgruntled player who comes up with such allegations - with the common factor being that rebel without a pause, Sarfaraz Nawaz.

These stories gain credence each time a disgruntled Pakistani player comes out with a scoop and is promptly backed by the perpetually disgruntled Sarfaraz Nawaz.

In fact, I was at first surprised to see that Nawaz did not say his customary piece when Aamir Sohail recently accused certain Indians and Pakistanis of having succumbed to bribes during the Singer Cup. It then dawned on me that it did not make much sense for Nawaz to voice his opinion on this one - because there was no way Imran Khan's name could have been dragged into it.

Even more amazing is how the man on the street speaks with confident knowledge about the the 'nexus' between betting syndicates and cricketers. Every Amar, Akbar and Anthony is privy to 'inside information' on how a certain cricketer was bribed in a certain match. When confronted, each one of them speaks about hearing about the 'nexus' from a second cousin's friend who played with the cricketer concerned in an inter-class match.

When a batsman gets out off the first ball he faces, the immediate buzz is that the batsman was bribed. Given whatever little cricket I have played or watched, I cannot for the life of me see quite how a batsman, bribed though he may have been by millions, could persuade an opposing bowler to give him a yorker first ball, or manage it so that the ball squeezes between bat and pad to drop the bail. Let's see you do it, deliberately, without making it apparent!

Even after India lost their Independence Cup match against Pakistan at Chennai, the 'grey' market buzzed with rumours on how certain players of the Indian team were bribed. Tell me, how can a team, chasing 320-odd runs, score 290-odd if they were indeed bribed. The eternal optimist that I am, the silver lining in the cloud of defeat was the fact that the Indians were willing to fight it out rather than meekly surrender. Not many sides have scored 290-odd while chasing a bigger target - attributing that defeat to the machinations of the betting mafia, rather than delighting in what was a great game of cricket, is frankly, churlish.

While on the Independence Cup, it was good to see teams achieve the 300-plus total three times, and a score of almost 300 once. Does it mean that the Indian wickets have suddenly improved? Soon after India's resounding victory over Australia in the one-off Test at Delhi, the topic of discussion was that the Indians were movers and shakers on their home grounds, and achieved results on Indian soil, only because they played against visiting teams on under-prepared wickets. Well, frankly, I don't remember any international competition where the wickets have been as uniformly good as this one just ended.

The general consensus was that it was because we played on under-prepared tracks that we could not perform abroad where wickets are better than those at home. Going by this theory, the Indian performances abroad should improve now that India is capable of providing good batting tracks at home.

A quick look at the team shows, yet again, the selectorial myopia while picking the side. What sense did it make to pick Gagan Khoda when the selectors damn well knew that he would not get a look in? With Mohammed Azharuddin out of the side, his place could have been better given to an experienced middle order batsman like the in-form Ajay Sharma. The Indian selectors should have taken a leaf from their English counterparts, who picked a side comprising in-form players, and turned the tables on Australia, their traditional rivals, in the recent Texaco ODI series.

For those who would argue that Khoda is an opening batsman, my answer would be that India already had in its side three openers in skipper Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and Ajay Jadeja. On a perfect batting track in Chennai, the Indian team management had no option but to play an out of sorts Sunil Joshi since they could not throw in an in-experienced Khoda in the middle order. For the sake of Indian cricket, I hope Tendulkar and Jagmohan Dalmiya have a serious chat before the selectors sit down to pick the team for the Asia Cup and the Sri Lankan tour that follows.