It was a joke when Lalit Modi said he “demanded” the termination of the CSK team from IPL. That the former IPL Chairman, who was suspended for alleged misappropriation of funds, should seek this sounds hypocritical. Rather on Friday he was seen dodging questions on betting in an interview!

I admit that I’m not a cricket fan yet I watched an IPL match in a stadium screaming my guts out in support of my favourite team. It’s worth wondering if cricket itself has become just a fun-filled event with hypocrites running the show.

When the spot-fixing scandal erupted and Sreesanth, Chandila and Chavan were arrested, BCCI chief N. Srinivasan acted as if he were personally insulted. And when his son-in-law was arrested, he was tongue-tied. The irony, I daresay!

Many have been arrested in the IPL spot-fixing scandal that has shaken the cricketing industry and left the nation in shock. The arrests come at a time, when India is already mired in controversies.

Betting was weeded out of international cricket by early 2000. With the initiation of IPL in 2007, the scope for scandals became wider. Film-stars, the bidding on cricketers, advertisements – everything involved money.

With Indian cricket in disarray, it will be worth a watch what new twists and turns the whole extravaganza takes. It will also be interesting to know before next year’s edition of IPL (if at all there is an IPL-7) what laws will come into effect to contain spot-fixing in the game. How many more names will crop up and how many more bookies arrested? How many more players and celebrities be involved? And how many more people will “demand” a team to be terminated.

As for the termination of Team-CSK… it can wait, now that the IPL is over!

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