Do you really think matches are fixed?
Cricket is involuntary to us, we dont make plans to watch the game and definitely dont count it as a distinctive social activity. Whenever our heroes are playing we end up watching the game or inquire about it as its part of our life. We know that fielding cant change during the free hit or how many men would be inside the circle during the power play, name of a player is engraved in our minds after his first match, there is no better ice breaker between a father and son than a game of cricket. We sure love our cricket and live it as life.
There has been a lot of talk about match fixing in the recently concluded IPL, specially after the modi impeachment by media. There have been reports of modi revealing the outcome of match to his betting front way in advance and hence making serious money. These reports would also mean that matches have been fixed, the same game played in front of hundreds of millions of cricket lovers was fixed and pre planned. These I think are serious allegations, not only against one man, but against the heroes we revere and against intelligence of a cricket lover. I cant speak for all cricket fans but not for once, not in one game I have felt that its a show and not a sport. There have been numerous drop catches and silly dismissals but for me to believe that they were pre planned and executed with ill intention is asking for serious degree of nihilism. Some of the reasons why I have serious doubts on IPL matches being fixed:
1> Lets start with the emo point : We hail these players as demi gods and any human burdened with so much adulation psychologically would not really sell their soul and hopes of millions for any amount of cash.
2> A Match fixed is a mutual consent of both captains and their teams, given that brand value of players like Dhoni, Gilchrist et al lies in 2 digit million USD figure, its unlikely that captains would put that in danger for betting money. Its only now you see Ajay Jadeja on News channels and few ads since the match fixing scandal hit indian team in 2000 (Azhar confessed to match fixing with mongia and jadeja), I think our demi gods do understand that we dont believe in blind love and can burn effigies and discard them from our lives if need be.
3> The IPL teams are culturally diversified and it would be very hard to fix a match in the knowledge of team given that point 1 and 2 above apply on team players and not just the captains, also the risk involved is tremendous. Its also hard to believe that a captain can loose the game on behalf of the whole team when each team has its share of stars. Team selection though can be rigged which would subsequently make captain the all mighty.
4> I haven't been able to spot moments in a game which might make me feel that a match is fixed, yes there have been dropped catches and lofted in the air straight to the fielder shots but to say they were intended that way is little hard for me to comprehend and would require me to have immense faith in the acting capabilities of the players.
Having said all that, we know that we have been through match fixing once before which resulted in fall of some of our favorite players (which we almost hate now) and some of us deciding to not follow the game, we though moved on but since we have a history, we cant deny it. There are also compelling allegations for match fixing by media and inquiry agencies. I am writing this coz if the matches were indeed fixed, then its a serious mockery of my enthusiasm for cricket and the time spent on watching the games and I hate that feeling.
What do you think? Do you think matches were fixed?
