Sports Minister Ajay Maken and BCCI are no friends is an open secret since Maken and BCCI are at war as the cricket body is against the minister’s move to bring it under RTI and include cricket among the National Sports Federations (NSFs) under the proposed sports bill. And after fresh controversies engulfing the cricket body regarding spot fixing, Sports Ministry has decided to give BCCI more troubles as talking tough against the BCCI, sports minister Ajay Maken has asked for a thorough probe by the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department into the recent claim in a TV string that IPL players received more money in black than the contracted amount.
According to a report in The Times Of India, the minister has asked the finance ministry to immediately get the ED and I-T departments to probe IPL’s finances to trace the black money being paid to the players.
Maken has already sought a proper probe into the spot-fixing allegation that has rocked IPL-5. “ED and I-T are already probing FEMA violations in IPL. It is tightening the noose around the BCCI. But now we have asked these departments to investigate whether players are being paid through other means too. It’s evident that there are huge violations of foreign exchange norms,’’ the minister said in a TV interview here.
Meanwhile Harsha Bhogle in his column in Indian Express writes that with a limited number of capped Indian players in the auction, there was a rush to find the best of the rest, and strictly speaking, if one franchise couldn’t pay more than another, very few players had strong enough reasons to move. “But then, there are many things that are whispered on the circuit, and because something is whispered about, it need not necessarily be true but more important, it cannot be proved to be true. And so the issue of being paid more than the contracted amount remained a whisper. Now players are saying it happens. The BCCI can look at it two ways. They can disbelieve the players or accept what they are saying and launch a serious investigation (which they have done but I am unaware of its scope) though it is very unlikely they wouldn’t have known about it in the first place,” says Harsha, adding that but it will be unfortunate if only the players are investigated because you cannot accept money unless someone offers it.
“If the players are saying they were offered money that couldn’t be accounted for, then it means the franchises were violating IPL rules too. If players are to be punished for accepting money they shouldn’t have from franchises, then the franchises should be punished too.”
Meanwhile Nirmal Shekhar in his column in The Hindu writes that while he has never been an IPL fan, or even someone who has followed it with some passion as a professional sports columnist, what has gone on in the last few days has forced him to wonder if it is even worth bothering about writing on a sport that has lost as much credibility as the Indian currency has lost value against the U.S. dollar in recent weeks.
“It is very easy to conduct a sting operation to expose fringe players who are always vulnerable in a system such as the IPL. But the big fish who may have indulged in corrupt practices are highly unlikely to be exposed, however resourceful or courageous a reporter might be. This is precisely the reason that I have an interesting suggestion. The line between sport and entertainment has blurred anyway in the most popular league in cricket. So, why not make it a form of entertainment, pure and simple,” he writes.
