Blame it on greed

Match fixing, One naming the other, Impotent administrators, Delhi police and transcripts, Cronje disgraced, King Commission, CBI report, Five Indians suspended, Good guys chasing bad guys... Sounds like pulp fiction, the prime time soap opera or the script of a Bollywood box office hit, 'Blame it on greed'! Actually it is the cricket fan who has been hit on the box!

Wise man says, "I either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it" It holds true to this mortal life on earth. The Democrats feel that the elections in Florida were fixed by the use of the butterfly ballots, and the holes being punched were draining the Gore votes. This is the world we live in; A shameless world, where corruption has been entrenched into our psyche. Wise old Confucius says, "I have not seen one who loves virtue as he loves beauty"

This is a world bereft of values, like it or not the truth is, this is a 'dog eat dog' world. The winner takes it all. We have become a mean people. This is the land of the Buddha, Mahatma and the Pokhran. This is the land where hundreds get killed in communal/election violence and bomb blasts... A land where young girls are burned to death in the name of dowry, this the land of monuments and scams. We have forgotten Bofors, The Bombay bomb blasts, The Harshad Mehta and the security scam, The lost fodder worth 900 crores in Bihar that would have fed the helpless cattle... the list is too long. We had a government that fixed the results of a 'no confidence' motion in Parliament and how dare we vilify the five cricketers who are accused of fixing the results of cricket matches which doesn't have a thing to do with the lives of the ordinary people of India? We have an IPS officer who was accused of molesting another civil servant becoming the chief of the Indian Hockey Federation. Virtue! Mark Antony talks of Brutus, "He only, in a general honest thought; And common good to all, made one of them; His life was gentle, and the elements; So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up; And say to all the world 'This was a man!".

Gone are those days. There is a subtle effort to put all the blame on the in(famous) five cricketers for all the sins in the Indian life. The media has pounced upon this as the vultures gorge on carcass. What is good for the gander is good for the goose too. If these cricketers who were lauded by the nation till the other day (the whole nation loved Jadeja when he hit Waqar and Pakistan out of the World Cup in 1996) are to be sent to the gallows, let us get the act together and send each one of those corrupt administrators and politicians to the dungeons. These five men do not represent the ills of our society, there are bigger and dangerous demons amongst us who make our lives miserable. If the politician has the proverbial 'nine lives of a cat', the cricketers seem to have one. Wise old Confucius says,"when you point a finger at another, there are three more fingers in the same hand that points towards the self". The whole case has been made out on the basis of the testimonies of the bookies. How many bookies have been arrested? Will they be produced in a court of justice (not as witnesses)? Or like the JMM MP's will they be made honourable approvers?!

Cricket will be better off without the rotten apples in the basket. This story will go on for a while till we find an even worse episode spread all over the media. We could all shove the previous events under the carpet and live in a 'make believe' world as if nothing happened (as the cat drinks the milk with its eyes closed). Will lessons be taught and learned? I heard someone say, "If you see the light at the end of the tunnel, certainly you missed the train".