Islamabad, May 29 (IANS) The Indian Premier League (IPL) is fast turning into “a Frankenstein’s monster”, said a Pakistani daily which demanded that corrupt elements be rooted out before IPL 7 is allowed to go ahead next year.
“After making hundreds of millions of dollars for its owners and participating players during the six editions of the league held so far, the IPL is fast turning into a Frankenstein’s monster,” said an editorial in the News International Wednesday.
“Critics are calling it a smouldering cesspit…”
Recalling the chain of events, the daily said it all began with the arrest of three Indian players including pacer S. Sreesanth May 16 over alleged spot fixing.
“Since then an ongoing investigation has helped nab several bookies and officials including a big fish – Gurunath Meiyappan – son-in-law of N. Srinivasan, the Indian cricket board chief.
“Suspicions that the spot-fixing scandal was just the tip of the iceberg are slowly but surely proving to be true,” it said.
The editorial noted that the corruption case has “even spilt on this side of the border with prominent Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf getting dragged into the controversy”.
It said that the IPL “certainly has a case to answer”.
“It is owned by the rich and powerful BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) and has helped scores of cricketers from around the world to make big bucks. But it is not above the law. Both ICC (International Cricket Council) and BCCI together with the Indian police will have to get to the core of the nexus between players, bookies and the Indian underworld,” it added.
The daily demanded that “corrupt elements will have to be rooted out before IPL 7 is allowed to go ahead next year. If that’s not possible then the league’s future will have to be decided”.
“At a time when cricket is fighting a battle to restore its reputation it cannot afford an international league that can easily be manipulated. ‘No IPL’ would be better than a ‘fixed IPL’,” it said.
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