Spot Fixing scandal claims one more - Son-In-Law of BCCI President

The Spot Fixing controversy - one more has landed in jail. This time it is Gurunath Meiyappan the alleged owner of the Chennai Super Kings and the son-in-law of BCCI President N. Srinivasan. He has been remanded to custody until 29 May 2013.

Mumbai Police claims that it has enough evidence "to conclude his involvement in the spot fixing case."

Gurunath has been been in the limelight until now as the "owner" of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) team. Although, now, there are several releases from the Team sources that he Gurunath is not the owner of CSK. These releases are raising questions as to in what capacity did he bid in the auction for "buying" the team members.

So many "insiders" of the BCCI sponsored IPL are involved in Spot Fixing and other irregularities.

• IPL Organizers - Lalit Modi the founding IPL commissioner is charged with irregularities
• Team Owner - CSK management is the latest in the controversy. Alongwith charges of betting he has been accused to leaking team strategy and planning to some of the bookies.
• Players - Three of them are still in custody - in fact their arrest is where this round of the IPL spot fixing controversy started.
• Umpire - Asad Rauf too has been under the scanner
• Bookies - So many have been raided and arrested.

I think, the entire gamut of the IPL cross section (organizers, team owner, players, umpire, bookies) are now involved.

The pressure is now mounting on N. Srinivasan to quit, while he, himself, is defiant that he has not done anything wrong and that he will not quit.

Spot Fixing - Credibility of IPL & BCCI at stake

The chaos around spot fixing in IPL seems to be increasing.

A matter that first hit the media and public attention with the arrest of three players has blown big. The scene has become murkier...

• Film star Vindoo Randhawa (son of late Dara Singh) has been taken into custody, 
• an umpire Asad Rauf has been relieved of his role in the Champions League, and 
• now no less than the Chennai Super Kings CEO and Team Principal Gurunath Meiyappan who happens to be the son-in-law of BCCI President N Srinivasan has been summoned by Mumbai Police.

Flip Side of the Investigation

The flip side of the investigation is the fact that Mumbai Police and Delhi Police don't appear to be supporting each others investigations.

We only hope that investigation does not meet the same fate as some of the earlier investigations related to fixing.

Spot Fixing - Is anything un-fixed?

The recent spot fixing fiasco in Delhi  in connection to the Indian Premier League has shaken my confidence in the game.

If reports are true and the three arrested cricketers have actually confessed then the BCCI should take a very tough stand. They must at-least announce the suspension of the arrested trio from all BCCI events until their name is cleared.

The police have said that the arrested cricketers Shreesanth, Ankit Chavan and Ajit Chandila, all three from Rajasthan Royals IPL team, have confessed to their involvement in the spot fixing controversy. The Police Commissioner of Dehli has addressed the nation saying that there is solid evidence against the three and that he was sure of getting their convictions.

Yet, surprisingly, so little is being done by the people in position in India's cricket control board, the BCCI. The outcome of the meeting of the BCCI top-gun on Sunday afternoon was a absolute turn down. It seems that the management of BCCI is not interested in clearing up the mess.

BCCI - please do something. Cricket is the most liked sport in India and everything must be done to maintain its credibility.

What is Spot Fixing?

Spot fixing reports has engulfed two ODI matches of the England v/s Pakistan Series in the UK. The first ODI at Lords and the 3rd ODI at The Oval are under the scanner. Even the apex cricketing body - ICC - has acknowledged the way the games were played is suspicious and has initiated an investigation.

What is this spot fixing?

John Etheridge - Chief Cricket writer has written in The Sun

...the final result is not the point of spot-fixing. This insidious, twilight activity involves manipulating passages of play such as the number of runs scored in a block of overs.

What's the point of sport if the opposition might not be trying as hard as they can all of the time?

Spot fixing tends to manipulate the smaller moments of the game not its end result. Spot fixing could target specific ball or a specific over or a set of balls / overs of the game. It does not attempt to directly manipulate the result of the game, but certainly does impact the sportsmanship as the players do not deliver their best all the time..
In cricket, it could be as simple as requiring a player to bowl particular number of wide balls in a particular over or something like that - or requiring a bowler to bowl a no-ball at a particular ball in a particular over- or - it may require a batsman to miss a particular ball in a particular over or a series of balls.

Fixing is an illegal activity associated with the betting market. Knowning the outcome of a particular event improves the odds in favour of the fixer. Spot fixing in cricket is popular where bets are placed on every single ball.

The popularity of cricket has increased many fold in the last few years drawing a lot of  attention from the betting community.

More Spot Fixing News

What's happening!! Cricket used to be a noble game. It has always been played with a lot of dignity and pride.

But, its credibility has taken a massive beating over the last month. Earlier reports of 3 Pakistani cricketers being involved in spot rigging during the 1st ODI between England and Pakistan shook the sport and its fans, now ICC accepts that even the 3rd ODI between the same two teams at The Oval is not above suspicion.

In fact, The Sun - an English tabloid - has claimed that is that submitted to the ICC inspectors before the match started information about how the scoring pattern during certain parts of the game would flow and the actual scoring in the match turned out to be very much in its information.

ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat has said that a full scaled investigation would be carried out into the match and re-iterated the zero-tolerance policy of ICC toward corruption in cricket.

ICC will have to act swiftly and decisively to ensure that such occurrences do not repeat and restore the people's faith in the fairness of the event.