“What is honour
Santhosh S01-Jun-2001″What is honour? A word. What is in that word? Honour. What is
that honour? Air.” — William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part One,
V:1, 1598A few weeks back, just before the ‘Report on Corruption in
International Cricket, April 2001’ was published the Director of
the Anti Corruption Unit (ACU) of the International Cricket
Council, Sir Paul Condon had made this suggestion that the
records of all players involved in the scam to be deleted.
Condon’s words did manage to stir a hornet’s nest as the media
and the leading scorers – statisticians went on a scathing attack
on the former Commissioner of Police in London for such a
suggestion. A case was made against him for not really being able
to understand the game of cricket. He was given a clear task by
the ICC; to look into the corruption that was growing like cancer
within the game. He was not heading a police investigation by
which he could have got arrest warrants issued against all and
sundry who has been involved in the crime.In the last week of May 2000, cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar
said that the International Cricket Council (ICC) should delete
all records of any player found guilty and “This is apart from
the law of the land which will decide on what punishment should
be given to them.” Was Gavaskar joking? When people like
Gavaskar who has been involved with the game for more than three
decades makes a suggestion, it should not be dismissed away as a
joke. It would be a joke only when people claim that Gavaskar
doesn’t understand the game. Condon was put in the dock by the
media for he agreed with Gavaskar’s views.Does the suggestion of deleting records hold any water? And, what
do we mean by records? Is it the statistics and reference of
players on scorecards? A record, for example, is an unsurpassed
measurement (e.g. A world record in weightlifting). Before
getting into a debate of the merits of deleting records of a
player who have been punished for their role in bringing the game
to disrepute, a closer study will give us a clear perspective.Most of the honest players and the administrators do not wish to
deface this wonderful game that we all love so much. A few
players who worked hand-in-glove with the criminals did manage to
mutilate the image of the game. These players should not be
honoured of any individual records they created in their playing
days. Ben Johnson lost his gold medal as well as his world record
as the fastest man in the 100 metres after being caught for
doping in the Seoul Olympics. The record doesn’t stay, but then
we all know for a fact that Johnson ran the distance in 10.79
seconds.Kapil Dev scored a hundred from just 74 balls against Sri Lanka
at Kanpur in 1986-87 and took over the honour of scoring the
fastest hundred in Test match cricket by an Indian. Mohammed
Azharuddin equaled his feat in 1996-97 against South Africa at
Kolkata from the same number of balls faced. According to the
record books, Azharuddin shares the record with Kapil Dev.Hansie Cronje holds the record for the fastest fifty by a South
African in One-Day Internationals. Azharuddin holds the record
for the fastest hundred by an Indian in ODIs. There must be still
more personal glories that these two men and the other indicted
players hold on to in the game. Why should Azharuddins and
Cronjes be allowed to hold on to any honour in the game?
Definitely this is not a silly suggestion, this is something that
ICC has to look into with utmost urgency. If and when
Azharuddin’s records are deleted or taken away, Kapil Dev would
hold the record for the fastest Test match hundred by an Indian,
he will not have to share the honour with a name that has brought
the game to disrepute.More than the match fixing and betting being a cricket problem,
it is a larger social problem with the involvement of mafia and a
whole host of criminal elements. People have resigned to the idea
that this is a marginal cricket problem, which needs to be dealt
by the cricket boards and ICC. From a cricketing point of view
Sir Condon’s report is commendable indeed but more has to be done
to address such a grave issue.So far nothing worthy have been done to stop people like MK Gupta
and the too many Johns from spinning their vicious web to make
huge amount of money through betting. If there are loopholes in
the law of the land, it has to be addressed to without any
further delay. We have paid a heavy price for complacency and
cannot afford to keep doing it anymore. If there aren’t enough
laws to protect us from the presence of criminals, it is the
responsibility of the lawmakers of the country to get into the
act. We simply cannot afford to blame that too on the effects of
colonialism or on the efficiency of a former English cop.Dealing with the criminals should be left to the professionals.
Cricket can definitely deal with issues at a cricketing level. It
is about time we had a debate about stripping the individual
honours that stand in the name of the tainted players. Gavaskar is the
present chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee-Playing. If his
suggestion that was made exactly a year ago has not been put
through a proper debate to lead to a conclusive action, we are
indeed still struggling with our present.
