It's back to business as usual

On the face of it, it's business as usual on the cricketing front. Zimbabwe have completed their Test series in England and the West Indies are in the midst of their tour of England. One tri series involving South Africa, Sri Lanka and Pakistan is on in Sri Lanka. Another involving England, West Indies and Zimbabwe started today in England. The TV commentators are describing the events with their usual hype and over the top phrases. Everything is ``wonderful, fantastic and great.'' Indeed, listening to them, it would appear that the game has never been healthier and that there is nothing wrong with it. Indeed, taken up by all this heady talk, it may be difficult to believe that cricket is in the midst of the biggest crisis in its history.

The Qayyum report findings in Pakistan are out and have not pleased everyone. However there has generally been praise for the manner in which the King Commission of inquiry in South Africa conducted the hearings. In India, even as the CBI is in the midst of investigating the seamy happenings of the match fixing scandal, there is skepticism in some circles whether the truth will ever come about, given the past nature of the CBI's style of functioning, and the fact that the match fixing case is indeed a very complex one. Moreover, for the investigative agency, the match fixing scandal is a whole new ball game, a largely unchartered course. And while of course a true picture will emerge only after the CBI completes its investigations and submits its report, talk of `forgive and forget' and amnesty for cricketers who come forward to give information or admit their wrongdoing is not exactly what is required at this stage. And while there is some reports of the guilty being brought to book and not being allowed to go scot free come what may, contradictory statements from those in power can only cause more confusion to an already depressing scenario.

The cynics of course are all agreed that it will be difficult if not impossible to halt the menace of match fixing, since there may be a mafia and a worldwide gambling network involved. The steps taken by the International Cricket Council and the various national cricket bodies were obviously not going to be enough to combat match fixing which is why independent authorities and investigative agencies were called in. And now comes the heartening news from Colombo that the Sri Lankan authorities have announced secret measures to prevent match fixing in the current tri series.

The Sri Lankan Cricket Board chief executive Dhammika Ranatunga said a couple of days ago that the cricket boards of Pakistan and South Africa had also taken steps on their own to ensure that the tournament was not manipulated by bookmakers. ``We have taken very stringent measures,'' said Ranatunga. ``We can't discuss them publicly because then it would be counter productive. It has been done to restore confidence in the game.'' It is interesting to note that two of the countries taking part in the tri series, Pakistan and South Africa have had players who have been tainted with allegations of accepting bribes from bookies and charges that they threw matches.

Sri Lanka is one of the few countries which have not been touched by the scandal but that has not stopped authorities from taking some action in this regard. To pre-empt such a situation, the Sri Lankan Cricket Board has also announced the setting up of an independent panel to investigate and prevent match fixing from making its way to the island country. The board has appointed a five member panel, headed by a retired supreme court judge, which will draft a code of conduct for players. Board president Thilanga Sumathipala said that while Sri Lanka had been spared allegations of match fixing, he wanted the panel to recommend ways and means to ensure that it did not creep into the game in Sri Lanka. ``We want to have a committee that will make recommendations and we hope to publish them and also go to the ICC and ask them to adopt such systems to prevent the fraud of match fixing,'' said Sumathipala.

Listening to all this, one can't help feeling that if only the national cricket bodies in other countries had shown the same anticipation and if only the ICC had heeded the early warning signals, the present sorry situation could well have been avoided.