The Ban Azhar should be Lifted

Many of us are aware of the match fixing scandal that plunged the cricket world into crisis in 2000. The conversations between the former South African captain Hansie Cronje and other bookies were recorded by the Delhi police and the fans wondered as if they were watching  something like WWF. There was some period of lull for the game. It was alleged that it was Hansie Cronje who first named the former Indian captain Azharuddin as the one who introduced him to somebody by name MK . Azhar then received a life ban from the Indian cricket board BCCI after a biased investigation that spread over a long duration. It looked as if that investigation was meant to frame Azhar. Now when the match fixing scandal engulfed the entire cricket world,  is it justifiable that only Azhar in the world of cricket still serves a life ban? If you go through the rest of the content in this blog and trust the contents, then you will surely accept that a gross injustice had been meted out to Azhar.

 

There were match fixing allegations earlier as well. Manoj Prabhakar said that one senior player in the Indian team has offered him money asking to perform badly in a tournament in Sri Lanka. After months of suspicion, he charged one of India's super stars Kapil Dev. However no one took the charge seriously. It was later proved that Manoj Prabhakar himself had links with the bookies and hence banned for 5 years.

 

Mark Waugh, Shane Warne and Tim May had alleged that Salim Malik had offered money to play badly in a test match in Pakistan in 1994. Later the links of Mark Waugh and Shane Warne with bookies were proven. They were fined by the Australian cricket board after an internal enquiry proved that they had accepted bribe to give weather report. After that no one else talked about these two cricketers. But does the Australian board want all of us to believe that there are fools in this world to give thousands of dollars just to ask for a weather report? Are they not aware that there are certain websites that give weather report for any place in the world? What about the common sense of the ICC and other cricket boards? Have they believed this news on face value? May be the two Australians worked as weather men before getting into cricket. Or do they have extra respect for only Australians? When the Indian board has considered lifting the ban on Azhar, ICC objected the idea. Why did ICC not question the Australian board? Also what about the South Africans Herschelle Gibbs and Nicky Boje? Do we all accept that only Azharuddin is among so many cricketers in the world deserve life ban? Even the other Indian cricketers got away with a ban for small duration.

 

I am not against the other people being back in action. But why is there only one victim among so many in the world. If an investigation happened at the central level through only one agency for all the players in the world we can accept that the investigations are genuine. It seems that the investigations were tough only in India and the rest of the countries protected their players. Applying simple logic will say that just one or two persons cannot run a scandal that engulfed the entire world cricket. Also he has been now out of action for at least 10 years. Is it not sufficient? All others on whom there were charges are back into the profession either as players or as commentators or something else related to the game itself. Why was the law tough only against one person? Where are the cricket fans who take to streets when India loses the game? When your passion for the game made you burn effigies of the players when India did not do well, when you were able to make the players Gods when India won, you should equally remember a player who has made a significant contribution to the Indian cricket.

 

We should remember that he was one of the best fielders that India has ever had.  His captaincy record in one day cricket is among the best. How can anyone forget the way he launched himself into the game when he scored 3 centuries in his first 3 test matches against England. The record is still intact in world cricket. Who in today's cricket is as fit as Azhar was at 46 years of age. Where is the passion in today's players to be as fit as Azhar? I hope the ban on him will be lifted and also hope to see him active on cricket platform either as a coach or in any other capacity. Are the ICC and the BCCI hearing? What is the message that BCI is trying to send across to the people of the country. Sharad Pawar should wake up and take an immediate decision and announce the lifting of the ban.