Vohra’s View: Banning IPL sides is completely illogical

Bikram Vohra 07:58 23/07/2015
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  • Tainted: Super Kings.

    With the secret of an alleged 30 corrupt IPL players and officials still safe in the unopened envelope given to India’s Supreme Court by Justice Mudgal, the banning of the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals as teams seems excessive.

    One can understand charges levelled at specific individuals like Gurunath Meiyappan and RR coowner Raj Kundra and their being proceeded against but it is inexplicable why the players or the teams as an entity should be punished unless evidence is provided that they were part of the scam.

    Without opening this letter (no one had told the public why it is secret or at what point will the celestial constellation will favour its unsealing) it is grossly unfair to taint the teams and literally gut the IPL.

    Throw the book at the crooks in the management but don’t destroy careers and the joy of watching some of the best in action while playing coy with the occasional innuendo leaking from the sealed missive.  Wrecking reputations with tacky little hints is deplorable and there is no defence against the parenthesis of a wink and a nod to gossip. 

    By disbanding the teams you are eliminating Dhoni (the Indian captain) Jadeja, Ashwin, Raina, Rahane, Samson, Nehra, with foreign stars like Dwayne Bravo, Watson, Smith, Southee, Du Plessis, McCullum, Faulkner and a host of others without telling the world why? Stalwarts like Rahul Dravid on the coaching side are also indicted, whether you like it or not.

    By sheer extension none of these Indian players should be allowed to play for their country if they cannot play for their franchise because they were, ipso facto, cheating. If Dhoni cannot captain Chennai on what grounds can he captain India?

    In reverse, the equation is even more bewildering. Can you go back nearly a hundred years? Eight players from the Chicago Black Sox plotted in 1919 to fix games or so they were accused. They were banned for life but they were an integral part of the part of a plot.

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    It was the biggest scandal in sport and still ranks in the top 10. But for two sordid years as accusations ricocheted across the world of baseball the Black Sox were not frozen out as a team. They benched seven ‘suspects’ and lost the pennant but they played.

    This great cleansing of the IPL is not a murky episode of Spooks. There is a judge who has given a list of offenders to the highest court in the land. There are thirty names on it and clues to a bizarre treasure hunt. There are six well-known cricketers. One is very well known. A few are up and coming. You could make a party game out of it.

    We are into year three of the scandal. Even the glue on the envelope would have dried out. Spit it out. Else, if you believe something legally or through some sense of propriety or lack of evidence stops you from making these names public then don’t allow conjecture of the stinky sort to foul up the issue.

    Presume the innocence of the two teams and ensure that they find the fresh sponsorship to be integral to the 2016 IPL tournament. You cannot justify guilt by association if you won’t put all the relevant information into the box, especially when you have it. Being selective derails the investigation.

    There is just no logic in banning teams because of their managements’ greed and it will take great naivety to accept that the IPL stables have been cleaned up with this one act. The way the ones who have dodged a bullet are preening themselves and spraying piety is laughable.

    All this stuff about putting things right and purging the IPL is being said by people who have been part of the IPL for years and isn’t it delightful that only now have their somnolent consciences woken up.

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