Whenever India does anything importantly right or wrong the
Pakistan
connection has to come up sooner or later. People of both countries like it or
not. The Karachi based Don Dawood Ibrahim’s D-Company connection to the Indian
Cricket betting racket was already established in the raging IPL Spot Fixing
Scandal that grows sleazier every minute now. The unholy mix of cricketers,
bookies, middlemen, BCCI and IPL franchisee officials, Bollywood stars and dons
now proudly includes that of umpires too. So far the umpires have not been
blamed for anything seriously harming the game except for some wrong or lousy decisions
on the field. But now, Pakistan
umpire Asad Rauf gets implicated thanks to arrested Bollywood actor Vindoo Dara Singh spilling the beans.
Asad Rauf has
been on the elite umpiring panel of the International Cricket Council (ICC)
since 2006 and was getting ready for duty in the forthcoming Championship
Trophy in June. Although not exactly an umpiring blemishe, Rauf has had a scandalous controversy involving a Mumbai model in 2012. He came under the scanner of
Mumbai Police after Vindoo revealed his connection to the bookies in terms of
providing crucial match information from the field. This is one of the biggest
blows this IPL scandal has delivered so far to cricket in India and now to Pakistan cricket lovers too.
The ICC,
following the developments, promptly withdrew Asad Rauf from the elite panel
thus canceling his engagements in the Champions Trophy. The ICC feels that this
decision has been taken in best interests of Rauf as well as of sports.
Meanwhile, a
Mumbai Police team today landed in Chennai on the trail of Gurunath Meiyappn,
the son-in-law of the BCCI Chief cum CSK owner N
Srinivasan and CEO of CSK franchise, following leads from Vindoo
Dara Singh. Unbelievable as it seems, the police team struggled to get entry
into Gurunath’s residence. Finally, he could not be traced and there was no
response from him or from the BCCI Chief. Exasperated, Mumbai Police served a
summons to him to appear by 5pm tomorrow for questioning. As par latest reports
Gurunath has requested Mumbai Police to allow him to appear on Monday.
Now, what
happens to the inquiry committee appointed by the BCCI to look into the matter
of spot fixing? Would the committee be so powerful as to dare question its
Chief? Silence prevails on all powerful fronts—the BCCI President is silent,
the topmost cricketers are silent and all the political leaders irrespective of
their parties are silent. This silence is that of big money, clout and vested
interests. BCCI silent for reasons known to all, top cricketers silent for the
stakes and political parties always sink their differences when it come to
a common ground like big-money cricket. Therefore, in this respect how far the
police investigations are going to be effective? Let us keep on hoping that Big
Money is finally defeated and cricket cleaned forever. Three bookies were
arrested in Mumbai today and several in Kolkata and other places making the
total arrests so far more than fifty.
