It had all the ingredients of a Bollywood masala film. A powerful script, copious action, myriad emotion, lengthy court room (read inquiry commission) drama and a pre-judgment suspense that people waited with bated breath. In the end -- as in most predictable Bollywood formulas the people's heroes got a clean chit.Justice YV Chandrachud, the former Chief Justice of India, accepted that there is widespread betting in the country, which is basically a law and order problem. But, in his infinite wisdom, he deemed that the players were not guilty of the serious allegations of match-fixing.
Manoj Prabhakar, the man who alleged that a team-mate tried offering him a sum of Rs 25 lakh before the 1994 India-Pakistan Singer Cup match in Lanka to help throw the game in Pakistan's favour, found himself in a tight corner. The timing of his disclosure, his troubled equations with the powers that be and his rebellious image made him a villain of the piece.
Chandrachud concluded, Prabhakar's allegations were
``imaginary and unrealistic'' and that he ``has lost his equipoise''.
Prabhakar's response to the findings? ``The report is factually incorrect and has little regard for truth... I was not even asked to name the player (who offered the money).''
Sadly, the only real victim of the whole outcome was not a cricketer but a leading journalist of a national newspaper.
Was the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) serious in cleaning up the Augean stables? No, positively not. If it had, the matter would have been handed over to a law-enforcing authority with powers to take punitive action if need be. Indeed, that's exactly what was the need of the hour as Prabhakar's allegations and popular public belief would have one believe that the country's pride is sacrificed for the ill-gotten personal gains of a few. The matter was alarming enough -- even if they were mere rumours to be tackled in a more serious manner. If the BCCI had shown that intention, they would have come out smelling roses.
Their
failure to do so makes one thing certain: One has not heard or read the last word on this controversy.
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
