By Suman Saurabh, 16 May, 2012.
The five Indian players from the domestic circuit recently have been caught on the camera for taking money to do spot fixing and also to change their franchise by a sting operation conducted by India TV. These five players has been recognised as Sudheendra, Mohnish mishra, Shalabh srivastav, Amit yadav and Abhinav bali. This incident has seriously raised several questions regarding the business deals and transactions that happen between the franchises and the players.
N Srinivasan, President, BCCI.
According to the present rule laid down by BCCI regarding the salaries of players in the IPL , the players from the domestic circuit who has not represented India at national level cannot be paid more than 30 lakhs by any franchises. Therefore, there is a limitation on the earning of these players. The players who have represented India at national level do not have any limitation on their salary. They can earn up to any extent which their franchises is willing to pay them. This has forced the domestic players to look for the extra money which other franchises are ready to pay them secretly under the table if they join them. It raises a very obvious question that why there is such discrimination between the caped and uncapped players from India by BCCI in the IPL. There are many young promising players from India like Rayudu, Manish Pande, Awana , Mandeep etc whose talent is second to none not even from some caped players of India. So if they get lured away by the offers of the franchises then is not it that the present discriminatory law by BCCI equally responsible for that. Why not give the space to market forces to operate openly and freely? After all is not the IPL primarily about corporate, money, profit and business. Then putting a limit to the salary of a player only because he has not played for India really make any sense? After all, out of millions, only handfuls are blessed to represent India. According to a source, there are plenty of unregistered agents operating in the market which contact the players and lure them into such deals. It is very important to put a ban on these unregistered agents.
IPL chairman Rajiv shukla with franchise owners, a photo by Royal Challengers Bangalore on flickr.
Although the BCCI has quickly reacted and have gone into a damage control mode by suspending these five tainted players and setting up a preliminary inquiring into the matter, there can be no denial of the fact that IPL today definitely suffers from a credibility crisis. It is not so long that Ravindra jadeja and Manish Pandey got suspended for asking extra money from the franchises more than their salary limit. Is the present sting operation a only tip of the ice-berg? According to N Srinivasan, the president of BCCI, it is only a matter of these five players and the system of IPL is competent enough to tackle such issue and even protect it from happening in the future. Although BCCI has got its own anti-corruption wing but it is imperative for them to even set up a neutral anti corruption unit from outside independent bodies which will surely improve the credibility and image of IPL .
Suman Saurabh is a cricket analyst and columnist at cricketbirds.
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