Spot the fix contest

When cricket first started in the earlier part of the 1900s in England, it was one of the sports played with the sole intention of entertaining the royal family and especially the queen. I was listening to one of the talks by Harsha Bhogle where he mentioned that one such test match lasted for 14 days which ultimately ended in a draw. The only reason the match was stopped was because one of the teams had to board a ship back to their country and they couldn't afford to miss it as the next ship was almost a month later. The captain of this team was also heard saying that if they had got just 1 more day, they could have won the match.

Even though the 5 day test matches tested the players, the crowds needed something that was more entertaining and this gave birth to the ODIs which were initially played with 60 overs a side. When the world was trying to figure out a solution to the Y2K problem, some people saw a solution to their financial woes and to make some money through cricket. The cricketing fraternity was introduced to the term match fixing when one of the most respected cricketers of that time, Hansie Cronje confessed to succumbing to it. This incident not only exposed the true colors of some of our idols at that time, but also set the cat among the pigeons. I was impressed with the way the movie "99" was shot and it touches on topic mentioned.

With more and more people getting interested in spicy steamed up quickies, the pleasure of ODIs started to fade away and this gave birth to a high on energy and orgasmic format called as T20s. Lalit Modi and his merry men saw a way to combine this and Bollywood in order to make it even more glamorous and named it the IPL. After all, in India its only sex and SRK that sell (I feel that SRK here doesn't refer to Shiv Raj Kumar. Just cant imagine him on the street corners waiting to be picked up even though I can easily imagine the KKKKhan. I'm sure to have plucked some nerves here :P).  

Coming back to 2010, the world was exposed to the little known brother of match fixing i.e spot fixing. People figured out that match fixing not only leaves a lot of loose ends but also makes it look obvious. I recently read that the finals of the IPL this year too was fixed and the bookies stopped accepting bets for a Chennai win even when they were 4 wickets down before the 10th over with hardly a decent score on board. Sending Pollard down the order too makes  one speculate if it was true. I have been following the success of the rejuvenated England cricket team and this team looks like their best in a long time. Lord's has been a Mecca for cricket and it threatened to mask the purple patch of the England team towards the end of the summer. To be frank, even though Pakistan has produced some legends over the years, I have never been a fan of their team. The incessant appealing, numerous doping and match fixing controversies, the internal politics, the inability of the former cricketers turned commentators' to impress a point sitting in the commentary box and the blinding green color are some of the factors that have made me detest their cricketing spirit. Till recently, I had started to admire Mohammad Aamir's bowling and I really believed that a youngster of that age could really take Pakistan cricket to the next level. 

Even though I believe that the recent spot fixing scandal involving the Lord's test was just the tip of the ice berg and that it is wrong to assume that only Pakistan cricketers are corrupt, the fact is that they were caught red handed. The excuses used by them to get out of this mess will make even a kid who finds armpit farts funny to laugh at them. 

" I had kept the money to shop for my sister's wedding". 

"This is a set up". 

"The Indian bookies are to be blamed for this".

It really amuses me to see that they took almost 3 days to cook up such dumb excuses. If at all you wanted money to shop, why would you do it in the middle of a test match and why wouldn't you use something called as the ATM? How can you call it a set up when there is enough proof shown in the videos regarding every step leading to the fix? I have to commend Asif here as he made the no ball look like a genuine mistake and Aamir on the other hand showed his inexperience by bowling a foot long no ball. Guess the kid was too nervous about doing it or just wanted to be on a safer side. Asif not only looks like a seasoned fixing campaigner but looks like a man confident about getting away with it. I wouldn't deny that Indian bookies probably had a hand in all of this but its the bookie's job to feed you shit and it all depends whether you throw it out, or eat it, or put a cream topping on it and lick the plate inside out just the Pakistan trio did.

Just like Bob Woolmer's death during the world cup, I'm sure this controversy too is going to be brushed under the carpet. I'm really interested to know if there is any proof of fixing umpires which I believe is the safest and easiest thing to do. If any of you bookies are reading this, give me a call and lets discuss it in detail :). This raises doubts with the credibility of people running ICC and their inability to implement the Umpire Decision Review System(UDRS). Implementing that system will probably take the fixing of umpires out of the equation and probably the committee members will loose out on the cut they are getting out of all the fixing portfolios.

CLT20 started last week and I'm so glad not to hear any DLF maximums or Karbonn kamaal katches or Maxx mobile timeouts. It is understood that a lot of money is riding on these events but one has to draw a line when it comes to commercialization. If the same trend continues, we might even get to see the "spot the fix" contest in which contestants not only have to guess which ball might be a no ball but also the exact number of times Deepika Padukone and Siddarth Mallya are shown on the big screen with a "oops we got caught doing it" expression. The problem with anything related to management or administration in India is that people are like crabs in a box trying to pull each other down all the time, unable to stand the success of a colleague or a fellowman. It wouldn't be surprising to see the IPL fade out like fizz in a soda bottle as a result of too much of commercialization. With the ousting of Lalit Modi and a highly confusing format for the next IPL just to make every team play 14 matches, I feel biting the dust is imminent. The organizers of CLT20 have done a fabulous job on the number of advertisements and sponsors even though they have made a horrendous mistake in choosing commentators like Ganguly, Manjrekar and co. But guess one has to compromise on something and I hope at least this tournament runs without any glitches and I get to see RCB lifting the cup on 26th :). Jai RCB.

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