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    IPL has had its good, bad and ugly moments

    Synopsis

    Aside from the judiciary’s recent involvement, cricket in India resembled an indigenised Game of Thrones where little has changed without external intervention.

    ET Bureau
    Krishnaraj Singh Jasana

    The IPL in its nine years has been a rollercoaster. It has had its good, bad and ugly moments, as sports attorney Desh Gaurav Sekhri tells us in NOT OUT: THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF THE INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE. Here are some excerpts from the book


    On How Cricket is Governed Aside from the judiciary’s recent involvement, cricket in India resembled an indigenised Game of Thrones where little has changed without external intervention. And the IPL is the loudest example of much that has gone wrong in Indian sport ad Indian society. It has also been a rainmaker of sorts. Bringing stashes of money to the sport, and marrying every facet of Indian culture to each other while ensuring that cricket remains India’s favourite pastime. In no other society in the world has so much depended on a single sporting event. It was this thirst for overarching sizzle, glitz, fame and power that has led to the partial decline of the IPL.

    On Lalit Modi & the Kochi Fiasco The Kochi franchise debacle turned out to be fatal one for its promoters and for Lalit Modi. Apparently, in his anger at being bypassed during the franchise auction, Modi made it a point to take to social media to disclose the ownership pattern of the Kochi franchise’s consortium. Not only was this alleged to be a breach of the confidentiality provisions of the franchise arrangement, it was an embarrassing revelation for both the consortium and for the BCCI. Modi’s claim was that Cabinet Minister Shashi Tharoor was involved in facilitating the transaction because he had an ulterior motive.

    On N Srinivasan Srinivasan has always been excellent at multitasking, but his role in the IPL redefined the term ‘involved’. At his peak, Srinivasan was the president of the BCCI, de facto president of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, chairman elect of the ICC, a member of the IPL governing council, and a team owner of the Chennai Super Kings. He technically sat on both sides of the table, and also presided over all cricket-related matters. There is no fathomable way in which Srinivasan could honestly claim that there wasn’t a dichotomy with regards to his priorities in his multiple roles.

    On Sreesanth & Co. Being Absolved In July 2015, S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan had been absolved of guilt by the Delhi High Court on the basis of there being insufficient evidence against them. This wasn’t surprising given the criteria that needed to be met.

    We've seen many empty stands during this IPL season. How long can the tournament remain 'Not Out'? I think the empty stands are a function of a number of factors. Fatigue after the exciting ICC T20 World Cup, extreme heat, and possibly even state elections impacting audience turnout. The IPL is still extremely popular, especially on TV, and the only thing that can slow its progress is an external intervention - most likely by the judiciary.

    You mentioned that the then Delhi Police commissioner Neeraj Kumar had linked the 2013 IPL spot-fixing case to Dawood Ibrahim through betting syndicates. There was apparently a 'watertight' case against Sreesanth and Co. but the court discharged them. Were no matches fixed? Was there no evidence? I don’t think there’s a clear answer to whether or not matches were fixed. The MCOCA has an extraordinarily difficult threshold to meet to get a conviction, especially for a sports fraud matter. Similarly, the Indian Penal Code simply doesn’t provide for addressing this complex interplay. The biggest challenge impacting the integrity of Indian sports is the difficulty in enforcing pertinent laws to curb corruption. A comprehensive prevention of sports fraud law is urgently required at the federal level.

    Will we ever know if the matches were fixed or not? Who the players were? Were officials also involved? What exactly was the IPL 2013 spot-fixing case? There appears to be reluctance in disclosing the details of what really happened. I suspect this is to preserve the integrity and veracity of the game and leave the alleged sleaze buried. This perhaps is why there is far-reaching regulation and monitoring recommended by the Supreme Court-appointed committees. The matter of the sealed envelope submitted by the Justice Mudgal committee is yet to be addressed. Should that information come into the public domain we will have a much better idea of the extent and participants in the spot-fixing episode of 2013.

    You've spoken about N Srinivasan and Lalit Modi at length. Was there a game being played between the two of them? Srinivasan and Modi are synonymous with the IPL- the latter as its at times injudicious architect, and the former as the protagonist of the ‘conflict of interest’ controversy. Jointly and severally they took the IPL to unbelievable heights, but at the same time have been inextricably linked to its many failures.

    The BCCI is a private body and IPL its product. Is there a conflict of interest if the members of a company have a stake in one of its own products? The crux of the dispute hinges on this technicality. The board believes it is a private body therefore exempt from such scrutiny, while the judiciary is clear that it performs a public function and therefore accountable. By invoking the Indian population as the plaintiff, the court essentially has put the burden of fiduciary and patriotic responsibility on the BCCI-IPL as the custodians of India’s passion, pride, and sport- cricket. And that’s a difficult argument to win for the BCCI-IPL, especially against the apex court.


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