It was a bad start of the week for me. Monday morning,
I gave up on a long standing debate, agreeing that I was wrong, and everyone
else was right. The match was fixed or to put it in my colleague's words the
entire ICC tournament, IPL, world cup 2011 or any other cricket match after
2000 had been fixed. This debate had started as a discussion few months when
someone in the office had sent out an email with title “IPL schedule 2013”. And
since then, every day when we all sat in the office cafeteria having tea, the
common topics were cricket, BCCI, IPL, MSD and fixing! What followed was a
series heated discussions over how much the game has changed in the past
decade. These were a bunch of guys passionate about the game cherishing its
past glory and condemning the current sad state of affairs that it had got
into. I was way behind in the knowledge that they had for the game, but that
did not discourage me in defending my point any less, that “not all matches are
fixed.”
My obsession for cricket started from a young age and
had reached its par during the International Cricket World Cup 1999. I have
vivid memories of this tournament which was held in summer of 99. While team
India could barely make it to super six (acquiring the last position), it was
team South Africa that I had set my eyes on. Not only was I fascinated by the
way they played; I felt a strange kind of connection with their players or one
player for that matter. Having enormous admiration for Lance Klusener, he was
my hero. And in the semifinal match against Australia, when he took that run
(that he could never finish) and ran half way through the pitch (with 2
deliveries left in hand), I actually cried like a baby and my sisters laughed.
Bill lawry's voice was announcing hysterically, "Donald did not go, Klusener came - what a disapponting end for South
Africa". It was that day that I learnt, and instantly dreaded, the
concept of 'net rate' that led Australia to the finals despite of the tie that
the match had ended on.
I had spent the next 2 days mourning on the loss of my
favorite team and player and cursing Alan Donald for not reacting faster.
Having no interest left in who wins the finals, my only consolation was when my
sister called out and said “Look, Klusener won the man of the series award!
The following year, in 2000 Cricket fans were
disappointed with a revelation that hit the news. Hansie Cronje, the South
African captain was charged for 'match fixing'. “What
is match fixing?” I had
asked my grandfather when I read the news headline on the last page of a Times
of India copy that he was reading. He turned the newspaper over, read the news
and looked at me, “He had taken money to lose the match”,
he explained. “But he would get money even when he wins,
right?” I asked. To which he had made a long face and said “Not
as much as he's getting paid for not winning it. They have corrupted the game,”
he declared “There's no point in
watching these matches now.”
I can still recall the disappointment that I had felt.
I was 11 year old struggling to understand what exactly was corruption and how
could it affect a game that I loved so much.
I don’t have a lot of memories associated with cricket
after that. Years later, I got fascinated and involved in the game again
because of a 6 feet 2 inches tall guy who had hit a 119 meters Six to Brett
Lee's delivery. His name was Yuvraj Singh :).
It was in the same 20-20 tournament that he had hit those 6 sixes in an over.
In the years to follow team India had acquired some real good players and a
captain who had his head in his place, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MSD). What I
really admired about MSD was his composure on the field and the consistency
with which he maintained it. Being mere spectators of the game, and not
understanding the detailed technicalities of it, you could still count on MSD
that he would get through somehow, no matter what the situation. But my open
appreciation for MSD often clashed with skeptical remarks from his critics who
claim that MSD is just one lucky guy who was came in time when team India was
already at its best. And every time I hear this remark, I remember that
dialogue from movie Chak De India 'Achhe
players ki hi kismet achhi hoti hai' (Good
players earn good fortune).
In a very recent incident, they talked about Dhoni's
assets and his shares in a sport company questioning his involvement in the
fixing scams and his integrity. The hide and seek game between scams and
celebrity being so common these days, the average public react to it for one
day and forget it the next day. But this was about cricket. In a country like
India where cricket is being followed like a religion, Sachin is addressed as god
and an India-Pakistan match is considered like a festival!
Despite all the rational logics, human brain sees and
perceives only what it likes. And I liked cricket- to the point where I had
shut my brains to avoid the cynics and their remarks that every match was fixed.
But unfortunately I had an eye opening moment. In the
recent ICC finals against England, MSD gave Ishant Sharma to bowl the 18th over
(with the risk of overlooking his pathetic economic rate) and like a prodigal
son who had returned back home to make daddy proud, he took those two major
wickets. It doesn’t take a brain with folds as many as Einstein’s, to realize
the fact; the one fact that stared right into my eye— it was scripted.
And if at that moment my brain would have had any
counter arguments, I would have laughed at myself for supporting a baseless
assumption for so long.
