One shady cricketer cannot bring darkness to the game: Gavaskar

It's about five months since the Delhi Police broke open the lid on the match fixing scandal on April 11. Since then, it has rocked the entire cricketing fraternity. In India, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is busy finalising the interim report of its findings in the scam while in South Africa, the King Commission submitted its interim findings a few weeks ago.

From mere allegations, things have moved a bit further with some of the national federations taking action against those players who have been found involved. As a first step towards cleansing the game, the South African Cricket Board (UCBSA) took disciplinary action against its players while the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) banned two of players. On its part, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has dropped 'tainted' players from the list of probables for the forthcoming ICC Knockout tournament to be played in Nairobi from October 3-15.

Meanwhile, for the first time in many months, former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar has voiced his opinion on the scandal. Talking at a function in Mumbai on Sunday, the former Indian opener came out strongly against the forces determined to destroy the lifetime achievement of cricketers. Gavaskar said the probable involvement of one or two such persons does not make the entire cricket fraternity corrupt.

Replying to questions, Gavaskar said "Just as one corrupt policeman will not make the entire department corrupt and one corrupt journalist would not put the entire media into shame, one shady cricketer could not bring darkness into the world of cricket." Gavaskar was presented the Sahyog Foundation Trophy and a gold medal by Union Minister for Heavy Industries, Manohar Joshi. He also received a gold medal from Sahyog Foundation Chairman Ram Jawhrani.

Meanwhile, BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele, who loves to be remain in the news reiterated in Jamshedpur on Sunday that match-fixing is not possible in India since "its leading cricketers" namely Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath "are honest." Talking to the media, Lele said "Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and J Srinath were free from any allegations and the Indian team was safe in their hands."

Lele said the match-fixing issue had been entrusted to the CBI and till the submission of its final report, no comment could be made. However, any player found to be guilty of match-fixing will be banned for life. He also said that "the government was not interfering into BCCI matters and removal of Mohd Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Nayan Mongia and Nikhil Chopra was an independent decision of the selection committee."

In a related development, the chief of Scotland Yard, probing into the scandal in England said he would be "very surprised" if reports from India that two England players may be facing corruption charges turned out to be true. Detective Superintendent Steve Gwilliam told the Sunday Telegraph that "I know absolutely nothing about this at all. "I'd be very surprised if this was true bearing in mind that we do talk to the Indians regularly."

Only a few days back, a Sunday Telegraph report quoting CBI sources had written that two England and three Pakistan players would be named in an interim report into the corruption by the investigating agency at the end of this month.

Certainly things are hotting up with a tremendous build up in true `filmi' style to the interim report, which is going to be handed over by the CBI to the Sports Ministry by this month-end. `Trailors' are already on with warnings from the minister and a frenzy of speculation by the media. The warning bell has already been sounded by the Minister of State for Sports Shahnawaz Hussian.

Just a couple of days back, Hussain said "many icons of Indian cricket could fall from the pedestal once the CBI wraps up its probe into match-fixing and betting in the game. Besides the super stars of the game, the CBI report, expected this month-end, is also likely to point an accusing finger at some other bigwigs associated with the game.''

But will the report live up to the hype or will it turn out to be a damp squib? One has to wait till the month end.