How deep is the rabbit hole?
11-Jun-2013
Writing for DNA, Dilip d' Souza ponders over MS Dhoni's conflict of interest which surfaced recently in regards to owning shares in the player management agency Rhiti Sports, which includes among its list of clients several Indian players who play under Dhoni, notably RP Singh. D'Souza highlights RP Singh's surprising selection for the 4th Test of India's tour of England in 2011, and wonders if it was motivated by anything other than form or performance? The fact that Dhoni has been so indifferent to this overt display of conflict of interest beckons the question: How deep and widespread is corruption in Indian cricket if the captain is willing to overlook the above as nothing more than being frivolous?
I mean, this seems so obvious that it truly amazes me that Dhoni took the shares. What was he thinking? How could he imagine that this transaction would not become public, that questions would not be asked? Or -- and this is worse -- does he not know, or care, about this thing called conflict of interest? And -- worse still -- is this true of most of us? This is the thought that drives that mention of a "low point" above. If Dhoni, and most of us, don't give much of a toss about conflicts of interest, I can't suppress a sense of dread about larger implications. For example, think how insidious and widespread corruption is?