NO CLEAR ANSWERS

Sharda Ugra tries to go into the minds of those who are alleged to have been involved in things like ‘match-fixing’ or ‘spot-fixing’ in this great piece in Cricinfo.

She cites people like Mike Brearley and Sandy Gordon to find answers to the question “why” or “what” motivates great sportspersons to take part in acts that are not sportsmanlike.

As an Indian and one who reads, hears about corruption and one who is also a victim of corruption, the reasons for going corrupt or bad are extremely complex.

There is a genuine feeling that when one is in the midst of corrupt people, the temptation to remain clean is extremely hard.Besides, the corrupt ones always try to enlist more members into their club, primarily to gain strength from larger numbers or to reduce the risk of being caught.But this hypothesis does not fit into the cases of sportspersons where most are clean.

It is mostly to do with greed and to nothing with the backgrounds-economic, social or religious. Even as sportspersons, especially, the cricket players of today are highly paid, the temptation to make that extra moolah without having to score runs or take wickets or grasp catches. The moolah is given precisely not to do anything of the above!

Personally, for me there is also a second factor that makes cricket players succumb to the lure of the lucre.There is no strong a deterrent or punishment that would discourage corruption.

There may be commissions and probes which can never conclusively prove the allegations and the whole thing repeats itself.

25 NOT OUT

We don't see batsmen on the field celebrating after scoring 25 runs-not even in the condensed format of 20-20 cricket.But this 25 is something to rejoice.

Harsha Bhogle has completed 25 years as a cricket commentator.I have never heard Harsha speak on the radio. The first time I saw Harsha was on a Sunday show on sports called 'Sportsmag' on Doordarshan. If my memory is not corrupted, I can remember that his co-host was Sanjana Kapoor.

He is one commentator who I feel has the right words for the right occasion.Rarely, he goes over the top. He does not say things like ' a fine driver of the cricket ball' to desribe a shot like many of his Indian contemporaries.I remember on one occasion when Harsha wanted the use of Variance-a statistical measure to compare the averages. As a student and a teacher of Statistics, I felt very happy.

But there are two write-ups by Harsha that make me remain devoted to the game of cricket even through the lean and mean times. The two write-ups appeared in the Cricinfo Magazine(now history). The first related to his experiences of playng cricket in a locality called Angad Basti of his native city of Hyderabad. The second one was an appreciation of Anil Kumble-one of my favourite cricketer.I shall provide the dates of the issues and if the people at Cricinfo allow, I shall post them on my blog.

I have read fine books on cricket-one by Gideon Haigh and the other by Peter Roebuck. The two write-ups of Harsha Bhogle stand there at the top of my all time favourite writings on cricket.
There is one little thing of Harsha that irritates me. Normally, a very composed person behind the microphone, Harsha seems to go over the top when the Indian team is the winner.

Anyway, wishing a very happy anniversary and expecting more from the man.