With Sreeshanth facing the heat along with two other players and bookies including, the common man of India is wondering if the game is worth it. Small time Bollywood actor and the son of late Dara Singh, Vindu Dara Singh too has been picked up by Mumbai Police for his alleged involvement in the fixing scandal.
In the latest happenings in this regard, the crime branch of Mumbai police is all set to question Gurunath Meiyappan, the son in law of India’s Cricket Board chief. The crime branch is mulling questioning N Srinivasan, the Chennai Super Kings owner in this regard. He is to be questioned owing to him being in touch with Vindu Dara Singh who has been arrested in the betting scandal.
Mumbai police sources point out that the enquiries have reached such a stage where questioning Gurunath Meiyappan has become important and that either he will be called to Mumbai or a team will be rushed to Chennai to question him.
Interestingly, the Mumbai police was now divulging the name of Gurunath Meiyappan citing various reasons but has given ample indications to the fact that it was talking about Gurunath Meiyappan. However, later police sources came out clean and hinted that it was talking about these two people and would indeed question them to bring fairness to the probe being conducted.
However, Gurunath Meiyappan has been reacting cautiously to the probe angle and has avoided any interaction with media and is not yet ready to open up and answer queries of media person.
It needs to be noted that any involvement of IPL team owner or any CEO in any form of betting is a criminal offence and if any role of Gurunath Meiyappan emerges in the scandal, the game of cricket will itself come under scanner as he is the son in law of India’s Cricket Board chief.
His involvement in any form will hint that all is not well with Indian cricket and it could spell the death knell for cricket in India. The players are undoubtedly under stress and the involvement of key pacer S. Sreeshanth in the betting racket has brought bad name to the game in India. The players would be feeling the heat.
The captain of Rajasthan Royals, Rahul Dravid who was also a vital part of Indian Cricket team had hinted that he was quite disturbed and dejected at involvement of Sreeshanth in the betting scandal. Any further rot in the cricket team is sure to leave him and others a dejected lot. The Indian Government needs to act with firmness in sweeping the system clean of this menace as the future of Indian sports is under threat.
In the past too betting scandal has rocked Indian team but no strict remedial measures had been initiated. This only encouraged players as Sreeshanth to fall prey to the betting mafia. The involvement of Gurunath Meiyappan hints at the rot that prevails in the system and immediate measures need to be initiated to stop any further degradation.