Match-fixing: devoured by deceit

A blind man's love for a woman is a flight of imagination. The fullness of her lips, the glint of her eye, the contour of her breast are all flawless in his head. When sight is restored though, the horror is stark. Her face he discovers is covered in warts. Her hair chewed by lice. Her teeth gnashed by vermin. A return to blindness is no comfort because the myth is shattered and the ugliness of her being has permeated his mind. I suspect for us believers, that moment has arrived in Pakistan cricket. For long we admired its talent. We revered its skill. We celebrated its uniqueness. We even forgave its excesses. Alas, we were blind. Underneath a layer of lip-smacking chocolate lies a bitter and disgusting potion.

We must ask what prompts young men, barely out of their teens to cast aside all notions of integrity? What drives them fearlessly into the arms of shadowy operators? Why are they consumed by the lust for money? Is greed their only ambition? How has Pakistan's cricket team created a structure where a willing ally in deceit is an 'insider'. And the occasional dissenter is cast aside.

Perhaps Pakistan's new crickter feels the world 'undervalues' his talent. He looks enviously on as players with lesser skill enjoy the riches of the IPL while he is a pariah. He wonders why his Indian counterpart has a stream of doting sponsors at his doorstep while he endlessly waits for the phone to ring. Maybe as his shambolic country slips further into chaos, the pride to play for Pakistan is just a punch-line to be mouthed at an appropriate forum.

So does an Amir lie in bed and think, 'Damn that Pollard, not half the cricketer I am and yet he merrily munches on a million bucks every year. Might as well take the cash, its only for a little no ball after all' Does an Asif convince himself that if Praveen Kumar can have a garish gold chain dance around his neck despite not being a patch on him as a bowler, then the glib talk about pride can wait. Can I have the cash first?

This is a cricket team that has institutionalised corruption so it is why the game must be played. It is a team that convinces its newcomers of how their talent must extract a price. This is a bunch of men so devoted to the cause of acquiring wealth that there is no squeamishness about method. Defeat is for the fan to mope about, because within it lies the real victory; a fatter bank account. 'There you IPL buggers, look how I beat you', they seem to be saying; 'You get a million bucks to bowl four overs, I can do it with one no ball'.

For those of us pulverised by the videos, this day brings a lesson. Naivete must be forsaken and suspicion must become a guiding principle while watching this game now. No longer can we afford to merely applaud skill and admire talent. We must question each odd occurrence. We must raise the red flag after each collapse. We must murmur about a dropped catch. We must mistrust a missed stumping.

Urged on by shallow and insidious men, the game seems to have spawned a mindset of willingness to set the bar lower. Integrity is an over-rated theory, best for the pundits to pontificate about. Today it is the Pakistanis, but will it end with them? Every 'glorious uncertainty' in the game from now on will stink of a taint. The gap between a mistake and a crime has narrowed. A pure game has been over-run by suspicion. We have been devoured by deceit..

Memories...

BLOT : This is not meant to glorify ragging any which way. Just sharing my enjoyable experience.


"Whats your name!! You idiot" thundered a voice, I looked back and there was a guy with muscles ripping out of his tight T-shirt and fag in his hand. I timidly said " Shreerup Rudra", With disgusted look in his face he asked me "What do you think just because you brought your dad along, you would be spared of ragging??". The word "RAGGING" somehow managed to break all the steely resolve which I had managed to show thus far.


With whatever guts left in me I replied " Bhaiya Ragging se darta nahi hoon main". I don't know what I said but it somehow made that oriental looking guy to break into a laughter. Later I realised that in IHM nobody is bhaiya or didi, it has to be Sir's and Madam's.


So after a day or two my dad left and NOW the 5ft 11in tall dark and frail looking guy was on his own to survive what we were told torturous ragging period spread across 6 months. So we were 16 odd guys used to stay in hostel which was oddly called " Front Hostel" the reason to which was that this hostel was right in front of our college, perfect recipe for disaster was that the "Amma" of hostel was very good cook and most of our college seniors used to come to "Amma" for their dinner.Now since not everybody gets food at one go, the seniors have to wait for their turns and while waiting for their respective turns they usually called us for "Personality Development Program" or PDP more civilized word for Ragging.


The usual ragging stuff were there and to people who know what all things are done in ragging they would know the inner secrets. but more than any other thing it was interaction with the seniors and other classmates of mine which usually enticed me to go for those ragging sessions, there were time when I used to be at some seniors place when ideally I shouldn't be there. The perks for ragging were also great so if you are hungry and if you are at  your seniors place the senior is now bound to take you out for or some snacks and my snacks usaally used to allo patties and coke. Also of you had managed to create a good rapport with any of the seniors he would go on to save you from going to some "HOT" places (places were the worst ragging in IHM used to happen). during ragging period we were barred from smoking and a senior who know you good enough would end up offering you a fag from is cigarette that was again a quite a good deal. I had lost count how many pound of patties and how many liters or rather gallons of coke I had in my ragging days.


There were few people who never used to give us a free hand. One particular senior was DSR, He was  real pain in our ass always upto find ways how to make life difficult for us. It was his room where i always hated to go because everyday his room required a spring cleaning. I made a promise to myself post freshers party  I would first go and confront him.One more interseting aspect of ragging was that the seniors used to give their clothes to juniors to wash and we would wash there clothes in WC out of shear disgust. And next day those seniors proudly used to wear those same clothes which apparently were "washed".


During all these things there were few instances were we as a juniors would always stand to gain. During lunch time in cafeteria juniors were always given the priority to take food first. No money was to be paid by juniors if he is in market with any of the seniors. Students who were unlike me and who wanted to to study would always getting extra notes from there seniors and i can tell you those notes were sufficient to get a decent enough marks. 


After six torturous months of ragging it was decided that on first sunday of Dec we would have our freshers party, but before freshers party there would be two days mass ragging days. the concept of mass ragging is simple. It's like that irrespective of how good or how bad you have done in your ragging drills you would end up having 20-25 slaps on  one given day. these two days were the worst days of my life till few months back.


Finally the freshers party it was no hold barred party where there was unlimited booze, food and pulsating music. The seniors in the party were no menacing seniors but one who were smiling at us and telling us why on earth they were so bad during our ragging days. Its was one fun filled evening which would always have a strong imprint on my heart and mind. As far as DSR is concerned he was the first guy in the party who took me away  and gave a swig of JW Black Label for first time in my life and thats when i decided to bury the enmity.


 

Starting Off

Sitting on my bean bag and thinking what to write, to get some thought I put my TV on. There you go another debate on national television as to how ready are we for Commonwealth Games. Great Question!!! I wish someone has answer to it.  Not sure about the corruption allegations which are doing the rounds, overlays are higher, games officials getting jittery, sports minister is forced to eat his words and chief minister of Delhi is hoping for some divine intervention.

Being an Indian I really want to see a world class event to be successful in India, its not that India had never hosted world class events (Asiad 1982, Cricket World Cup 1987 and 1996, Afro Asian Games 2007 (Hyd) and Commonwealth Youth Games 2009 Pune, Hockey World Cups) there are more events which could be bracketed under the world cloass events however no events has managed to generate so much media hype and public scrutiny as CWG-2010 that too all for wrong reason.

I remember reading an article about how 1982 Asian Games where brought to New Delhi, 1980 India got the bid to host the games and in 1982 we had our very first world class event happening in swanky new stadias. 2 years flat amazing!!! considering that Indian former Sport Minister who is so much against the games sat on the CWG-2010 expense file for 2 years that too when India got the successful bid in 2003.

I guess there is not enough time left in asking the question “Were the previous Governments wise in bringing the games to India”. We have only 50 more days left before the opening ceremony. I think its “bit” too late to ask this question. Government has spent 28,054 CR Rs  for this game. It just makes me think how many more godowns could have been created to stop grains from rotting or how many more districts could have been covered under NREGA.  Money spent is for good this is what government saying are we ready to buy this theory??? When we see there is rampant corruption all around. 

One of my very dear friend is working in Organizing Committee (OC) of these games and everytime I had a discussion with him around the negative publicity the games is generating I feel a pain in his voice when he says “ Kare Kallu aur mare Lallu” . It’s not worth mentioning who is “Kallu” out there.

India as we all know is better known for its magic tricks and amazing rope tricks. Just hoping that the OC, State and Central Government has some kind of magic wands in their hand which thay can use to clean up all the mess which is lying on Delhi roads so that the road to the CWG’2010 is far smoother and better than what it is now.