New Delhi: Former India captain Rahul Dravid is of the opinion that educating players about the dangerous outcome of match-fixing wasn't enough and has asked for making fixing of cricket matches to be made a criminal offence in order to instill fear into the hearts of prospective offenders.
Dravid seemed to be deeply hurt by the spot-fixing episode which mired IPL VI that started with the arrest of three members of his team (Rajasthan Royals), including S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan by Delhi Police.
Later the controversy engulfed a couple of IPL team owners, including Gurunath Meiyappan of Chennai Super Kings, who incidently is also the son-in-law of BCCI chief N Srinivasan, which resulted in Srinivasan stepping aside from the top post for a free and fair trial with respect to IPL spo-fixing.
Dravid is one of the witnesses in the case against the cricketers.
Dravid, who is known for his integrity and sincererity on and off the field and is reverred by one and all, said these kind of incidents would have to be dealt with severity. "We need to police it and have the right laws and ensure that people indulging in these kind of activities, are actually
punished," Dravid said in an interview to www.espncricinfo.com.
"People must see that there are consequences to your actions. That will create fear for people,” Dravid said, adding that lessons could be learned from the high-profile doping incidents that have blighted cycling.
"The only people cyclists were scared of was not the testers, not the authority but the police. The only guys they were scared of was the police and the threat of going to jail. So the only way that people are going to get that fear is if they know the consequences to these actions and the law that will come into play. It has got to be a criminal offence," said Dravid, adding that administrators should work more closely with police to restore cricket's credibility.
"So many fans and so many people care deeply about this game and it's because of these fans and people we are who we are as cricketers. Administrators are there because of the fans and the cricketers, to run this game. So I think that credibility of a game in the eyes of the public is extremely important," Dravid said.
