Fix the fixers
India has rarely been fortunate to bask in the glory of its athletes at international sports meets, but its sports administrators have managed to draw attention of the inglorious kind. That the International Olympic Committee had to force the national body by pain of suspension, to hold an election with candidates without a corruption taint this week, shows how things have deteriorated. The suspension gained ample publicity as three Indian participants at the Winter Olympics in Russia were disallowed from marching under the national flag. The flag is now hoisted in the Sochi stadium to restore India’s status as a participating nation even if nothing is expected of the athletes in the remaining days to lighten the stain. It however is significant because Indian athletes can participate as representatives of the country at the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games later this year.
But in this same week, cricket, the one game that India is a powerhouse on field and in the boardrooms, here and overseas, reaffirmed the reputation of unsporting money management when high power judicial enquiry found evidence of match fixing and corrupt practices among some leading lights of the game. If the shame at the Winter Olympics didn’t raise passions, the cricket scandal is bound to, as it comes just when Indian and foreign players are being bought and sold for obscene amounts of money to play in the multi-million dollar Indian Premier League (IPL) to be held abroad in April and May.
What it all brings out is the diffidence of India’s sporting officials to run a clean administration and the tendency to place hurdles in the way of investigations by sporting or legal watchdogs and punish the guilty.
The big problem for investigating agencies of the central and state governments is that they come up against powerful politicians, including ministers, and well-heeled businessmen who hold the reins of sports bodies. In fact the Indian Olympic Association’s suspension 14 months ago by the IOC was linked to the refusal of two top officials indicted for irregularities in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, to quit.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) also has had its share of problems over officials charged with misdemeanours refusing to step aside. The latest IPL inquiry findings are embarrassing for the BCCI chief N Srinivasan who only last week was elected chief of the International Cricket Council, because his IPL team, Chennai Superkings, is under a cloud and his conflict of interest is being questioned accompanied by calls for his resignation.
Given the background of sports getting commercialised with big money at stake, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) wants to set up a dedicated unit to investigate fraud, match fixing and illegal betting. CBI Director Ranjit Sinha told a FIFA-Interpol national workshop on “Tackling Match Fixing and Corruption in Football” in Delhi last month that the betting industry, with close links to worldwide crime syndicates, were behind corruption in sports. (Except horse racing, all betting is illegal in India.)
However, it is clear from the experience so far that prevailing laws are not enough to deal with corruption in sports. A legal framework with dedicated criminal investigators to deal with sporting affairs – like that for economic offences – needs to be set up. The sports ministry has a draft in the works. This has to be pursued by the government formed after the election and passed with urgency to show we are serious when India aims to replicate the IPL success with football, hockey, badminton and tennis, all in the commercial big league with international players.
Given the background of sports getting commercialised with big money at stake, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) wants to set up a dedicated unit to investigate fraud, match fixing and illegal betting
