Under suspicion

Without making light of the severity of the charges against the trio,their deal-making with bookmakers can be passed off as a statistical aberration. A few bad eggs in a basket as large as the Indian Premier League’s can be taken in a tournament’s stride if all else is spotless. The IPL’s problem — and the BCCI’s too,by implication,as the two entities are so deeply entwined — is that its administrators lack credibility when they aver they are seized of the matter. Their reassurances that action will be taken on the spot-fixing charges strike a feeble chord,not because they are not expected to take stern action against the offending threesome. As of now,there is little to indicate that the BCCI will be anything but cooperative on stamping down on match-fixing in its various forms. But scandal brings the full gamut of a sport’s organisation into the spotlight — and the IPL is not yet coherent enough to withstand the glare. Two issues stand out. Assorted conflicts of interest undermine its administrators,beginning with the BCCI chief himself,who owns the Chennai franchise. And the co-opting of various stakeholders,including commentators,in the annual fiesta,so that tireless cheerleading is passed off as self-scrutiny,has ended up inviting suspicion that everything is not quite what meets the eye.

The Sreesanth scandal may or may not have been waiting to happen. But now that it has,it must compel action on much more than his antics.