Cricket is clean, change in the system needed

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Conflict and conscience are contrasting terms but are closely co-related in the current Indian sport scenario, cricket in particular.
Cricketers and cricket administrators are the talking point with conflict of interest being the focus. In my view, as long as they don’t misuse their position, having business interests directly related to the sport is not wrong. But then the problem starts when people cannot decide on where to draw the line and that is when the conscience takes a call for an individual.
It becomes more pertinent when people use their office to derive ways and means which benefit.
In a sport like cricket in our country, the conflict starts with the top-order. N. Srinivasan’s conflict of interest is ridiculous and it goes to show it is all one man’s greed.
To hold office where interests are inter-linked, their ethics and morals need to be in place. He has tweaked certain rules to become the board president and still own an IPL team.
If reports of M.S. Dhoni’s stakes in Rhiti Sports are true, there will naturally be temptations to accommodate ‘his men.’ It all depends on how he overcomes that
For example, apart from running an academy I’m also the president of the Bangalore Urban District Athletic Association, so on that basis can I accommodate an athlete from my academy at the expense of a more deserving athlete? That depends on an individual’s conscience. Mine would not permit me to do that because in the bargain the sport suffers.
People are talking about cleaning up sport, but why blame the sport?
The sport is clean, but what needs to be cleaned up is the system.
In a system where players are sold like horses and commodities where is the room for respect, morality and ethics?
Even in sporting extravaganza like the English Premier League, the greatest of footballers are ‘signed up’, paid wages traded and loaned, but there is transparency and dignity in the way players and their talent is handled.
The sorry state of sport in our country is that many people put their hand up to ‘serve’ the sport and hold plum posts, but the agenda most often is, ‘How much will I gain from the sport,’ rather than ‘How much can I give the sport.’
The conflict of interest and corruption in sport will continue to exist as long as people expect returns for the ‘service’ to the sports.
As told to
Manuja Veerappa