How to rediscover The Age of Innocence?

 By Vikram Afzulpurkar

Everybody's talking about bold steps to clean up cricket. Can cancellation of TV broadcast of India's matches be a trial solution?

Keep going?

Should we trod on in the murky climate? The 2013 match fixing scandal didn't spare the new-age T20 format and a private league too at that? Thirteen years ago, it was the 50-over format that was threatened? Should each experience make us stronger as aficionados and to that end better equip those who run the game? They can outline fresh strategies. After all everything is an iterative process, right? Or, wrong?

Packer's idea was considered crazy. Time for another one? Un-televise cricket.

Reverse revolution

Actually here's a revolutionary idea if Kerry Packer's of televised private coverage, coloured clothing and mixed nationalities in 50-over matches was in the '70s - Do not televise matches. Revolutionary, again? So why aren't you accepting it with the same equanimity? With the lack of coverage, the sport would seemingly be dead but of course there may be virtually no betting and therefore no fixing. Agreed, our citizens would have to read the news in the papers the following morning just like it used to be in the 1950s. There would be no sponsorships for the game and salaries of players will have already dried up.

Indian domestic and English County cricket

English County offers  a long season, inspoilt season

For true cricket lovers who are expecting this will never happen, an alternative route is to watch genuine cricket at the domestic level in India. Why, even the long English county season offers them a chance to watch relatively unspoilt cricket. These, though televised, don't seem to be fixed by greedy bookmakers from the subcontinent.

India's Monster Money Class

An Indian middle class with more money bets

The trouble with keeping an entertainment spectacle clean is that it is being broadcast and when it's the main game of the country where the rising middle-class want to wager. India's 200 million middle class of the mid '90s true to predictions have contributed to India's economic growth. Consumerism has fuelled the growth further and perhaps this middle class is now more than 200 million. That's at least four times more than the entire population of England! Mind you, there is another billion that is also prepared to bet. So the figures are humungous and it's the sheer size of India that invites the devil in betting and fixing!

Cleaning up Cricket

Anti Corruption officers have ensured attention to detail

Of course, this discussion is not complete without deliberating the path of prudent Anti Corruption measures. All matches, including IPL's seemed to be following a wonderful process of having ACSU (ICC's Anti Corruption department) officers at all matches. They would arrive two days before the match, meet with relevant office staff at the venues and establish contact with all concerned personnel at the stadium. Further, they ensured they had everybody's mobile numbers, which of course later or concurrently, they could forward to persons in their office cells to track phone conversations.

Roving sheriffs

Detailed briefings

The ACSU officers would also meet with the security supervisor, specify to stadium representatives that only a certain number of persons were allowed into the area near the players dressing room. These too would have to have accredited badges, referred to as 'accreditations.' Even the staff who catered to the players in the dressing rooms, that is, ferried the food in and out on the buffet table, were restricted. The kitchen staff would be told only to come to a certain point, no matter what.

Detail

Close surveillance of crowds

After all these and several other preparations, the officers would identify a room that would provide them a bird's eye view of the match. They would occupy this room for the greater part of the match, while ensuring they conducted regular walks and inspections. A superb system that is followed even today. Or a seemingly superb system? Wait, of course, it's a foregone conclusion that players' mobile phones as taken away and kept secure just as they enter the dressing rooms. Everything seemed watertight! But the truth turned out to be quite different. Sinister elements find a way to spot fix matches.

Records compromised?

Come May 2013 and the scandal of match fixing again. Tell me, how much more can anti corruption agencies do? Will there be a solution at all? Imagine that several of those player records in T20 and ODI are not genuine. How would you, the fan, react? Would you rather ask for your two-bits entertainment on TV at the price of unscrupulous elements running your game the way they bargained for? Or would you rather remember the fine records of sportsmen, of human endurance and skill?

Preserving

Perhaps you the cricket fan has to make this sacrifice. Compromise all that TV coverage. Make an

Would you go to watch domestic cricket?

effort to go to the domestic match that is not televised. Enjoy the true spirit of the game and celebrate sportsmen for who they are. After all, was this not the way a healthy game subsisted in the better developed countries? India is a prosperous country now and we can certainly plan our resourcing better. Let not entertainment be taken out of context.