Let justice be the name of the game

In the last week or so, the world cricketing freternity has been witness to one of the greatest soap operas in the game's history. The fall from grace of the South African captain Hansie Cronje has for once thrown open a debate of lack of sporting integrity among the players.

With the ICC chairman, Jagmohan Dalmiya calling for a meeting with the BCCI chief AC Muthiah, the international body has now made a rather belated but all the same a welcome entry into the picture in view of the apparent confusion that has followed the sensational disclosures. But what is reassuring is that the heads of the other national organisations have also expressed a willingness to attend the meeting, aware of the urgency of the situation. One is sure that the proper actions would be taken with regard to the match fixing scandal. After all, there have been numerous occasions in the past on which the alleged offenders have got away with a simple fine - or less - because of lack of evidence.

The meeting is now been set to be held at Calcutta on April 27, when the cricket chiefs of the respective boards will discuss the course of action and possibly work out methods of handing out justice. At the moment, it seems that there are three options left to them, given the current way of thinking. One is a simple fine, the second is to wipe out the personal records and the third is a life ban. Perhaps there could be a fourth alternative - handing over the judgement to the approppriate authorities.

Let's consider the first option. Fines, as it has been seen time and again, has never been an apt punishment as the offenders are generally well to do. Paying a fine may not make a big dent in their purse and is unlikly to be a deterrent. Moreover they may not be held morally responsible.

Wiping out records is also not a very satisfactory solution for such a problem. Because it is a team game, there are certain practical difficulties. The player's name will continue to be in the scorebooks but not in the record books and that is a rather odd situation.

A life ban would seem, on the face of it, to be a more practical and just punishment. But then an incident such as match fixing, if proven, becomes a very serious offence and is more tilted towards criminal prosecution rather than just remaining a cricketing problem.

All things considered, it would seem then that the best option is to hand over the procecution to the appropriate authorities. By these, I mean handing over the case to the Central government, the Central Bureau of Investigation or the courts of law. But in the case of involvement of other countries - like in the present case - it would mean that international authorities like Interpol would have to be brought into the picture for helping in justice being maintained.

If at all anything could be achieved towards a just solution in this regard, it would seem that handing over the case to the relevant authorities is the best option. The onus is now on the ICC to rid cricket from this cancerous growth and re-establish the noble name of the game.