Match-fixing — Money is a great leveller

NEW DELHI, APRIL 7: And now the evidence. Evidence that a few players have succumbed to the lure of big money and don't think twice about ...

NEW DELHI, APRIL 7: And now the evidence. Evidence that a few players have succumbed to the lure of big money and don’t think twice about selling their wares. The Indians might take solace in the fact that their own players have not been charged so far. They can also derive satisfaction from the fact that the theory that “white” cricketers are above board goes for a toss, but who knows where this chain of betters-bookies-players nexus might finally end.

What should be disturbing enough is that the bookies are Indians and the whole drama has taken place in the sub-continent. If the South Africans and the Australians (Mark Waugh-Shane Warne have admitted taking money from an Indian bookie) could be tempted, there surely must have been an attempt made to lure the Indians. The Justice Chandrachud report — not made public so far — did exonerate the Indian players but there have been strong doubts about the manner in which that probe was conducted. My experience when I appeared before the former Chief Justice convinced me that nothing concrete would emerge from it. And nothing did.

I was not sure what would be the end result of the story I did from the West Indies in April, 1997, on the bookie I had met and the offer he was willing to make to some of the key Indian players by using me as a conduit. I was aware that the story lacked “meat” in the eyes of the law but there was enough evidence for anyone who cared to find out that bookies had infiltrated the cricket arena and the money on offer was big enough to tempt players.

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That mere “gossip” — as many described the report at that time — has blown up into the biggest scandal in the history of the game only shows how far removed the administrators have been from reality. Their stand that all is well with the cricketing world raises doubts about their own role in this “cover-up” operation.

There is shock and disbelief today that of all people the highly motivated and professional players from South Africa could be involved in something as murky as this. Let me reveal what that bookie had told me in the West Indies in 1997: “The South Africans are the ones who do it the most and that is the reason why I have been to that country so many times — some seven or eight times. I want to go there again but the visa officer denied me permission this time as he has become very suspicious and wants to know what kind of business I do that brings me to their country so often.”

This only goes to show that money is a great leveller and it does not discriminate between the developed world and the Third World. Nor does it have any biases of race and colour.