Tuesday, May 21, 2013

How Much Is Enough?

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

In a never ending saga of professional atheletes continuing to display greater greed, we have the latest of the Cricketers throwing in the towel for money.  Literally throwing in the towel is a reference to playing for money, and nothing more.  They might have definitely influenced the outcome of the games where they cheated on behalf of the gamblers, and for very little financial gain throw away the games and the very hard work of their teammates and the great following of millions of fans.  It makes little common sense to throw games in the age of electronics and communications; as getting caught doing something (good or bad) is always a certainty.

In the same game where Dravid, Tendulkar, Kumble, Ganguly, Sehwag, Harbajan and others are still active, these youngsters worked for bookies rather than their teams.  They have had great teammates and leaders who have played the game for a long time and exemplified the hard work of a professional athlete.  They also are involved in the tournament which pays everyone a handsome fee for a short season and very short time on the field.  They still chose to chase a few bucks to toss games and destroy the enthusiasm of millions of fans.

The sad story is that these fellows did not learn from their counter parts who were involved in mat fixing before and got caught, and were taken to task.  The world over the lure of quick money and other incidentals along with the money are a constant lure to the sportspersons.  At every stage of a competitive situation, there a lure of throwing in the towel to the advantage of bookies betting from the sidelines, but the fame of a professional athlete is a lifelong and everlasting compensation which can never be measured in money; although the professional athletes of today make enormous amounts of money outside of the fame bestowed on them by the every adoring public.

The biggest lie is to cheat on your team and the bigger sin is to think you will get away in this age of constant monitoring by the media and enterprise; both police and criminal.  The communications and contacts once made cannot be erased, and if there is any doubt that someone will get away with a brazen act of public action such as throwing a game away is simply imponderable.  These guys are not just selfish, but plain stupid.  The very fact that they got to play at the level they were playing was a blessing in itself in a world with such vast amount of talent.  Outside of the luck they had in being picked for playing in IPL, they were also paid very handsomely for a few hours of work, and outside of money the fan adulation was immeasurable.  Still these blessing were not good enough, and they had to chase a few more dollars on the side and betray the trust of the team and people.

Whatever the repercussions of the deeds of the few, the game and the teams suffer consequences beyond just the few games of the season.  Everyone who is playing will be scrutinized for every action, and it will take quite some time to regain the fun of the game and the professionalism of the players who are hard at work.
 
Unfortunately there are always going to be a few bad apples in the bunch and will cause a whole lot of grief to the following public and the serious professionals who play hard every day.  However many times we have seen the match fixing saga in different continents, it may never seize to exist in professional sports, but attacking this with vigor is important for future of the sports; people who will think of cheating again must be made to see the consequences of their actions, so at least they will think twice about cheating again.

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