If cricket is on the front pages of newspapers these days rather than on sports pages, several people connected to the game must share the blame. The Shah Rukh Khan fracas involving security guards and Mumbai Cricket Association officials was entirely avoidable, and only further sullies the game’s fair name. But bad news never comes singly: the Wankhede spat was quickly followed by the arrest of an Australian IPL player, Luke Pomersbach, for molesting a woman and assaulting her fiancé at a prominent New Delhi hotel. While Pomersbach has been granted a day’s bail after being produced in court, and we still do not know how this incident will play out in the coming days, the incident should serve as a warning to the administrators of the game. Admittedly, the Indian Premier League can’t be held responsible for what its players do after playing hours, particularly after it stopped the compulsory post-match parties. But since cricket does attract diverse characters, it should be on its guard about discipline on and off the field.
The time may have come for the cricket board, which oversees the IPL, to take stock of recent hits to the league’s image, and lay down rules for team owners, players and officials so that everyone is held accountable and seen to be furthering the game’s interests. It is after all the league that delivers so much to the game, its players and stakeholders.
Regarding Wankhede, while abusive behaviour is hardly called for if a security guard is enforcing the rules and getting people off the field, the Mumbai Cricket Association’s reaction to the IPL team co-owner’s action in announcing a five-year ban seems excessive. There is obviously more to all this than meets the eye — as several politicians are also involved in the running of the game. And it is also open to question if a team owner can be barred from an IPL venue: this is something the BCCI must examine. Further, if SRK’s claim that securitymen manhandled young children is true, that is completely unacceptable, and must invite severe action. Celebrities, however, need to be measured in what they say and how they behave as they are seen as icons. Shah Rukh, as a Bollywood superstar who has a stake in cricket, is in an even more sensitive position.
It is high time that an elder statesman of the game tried to get together the people taking confrontational positions and sort the matter out, lest these recent events surrounding IPL-5 further erode the league’s position, and all that it has done for cricket in India. To question the IPL’s very existence due to some unsavoury incidents is not to see the wood for the trees.