WWF.CRICKET

"People should stop watching cricket" my husband declared as he shook his head reading the HINDU..."it is this too much attention we give it that is spoiling the game.", he continued in an injured tone.." and the lure of easy money...u just bet and expect bucks to roll in"...He was plainly disappointed, and even though would not admit it,was chafing because just two days back he laughed,. nay, pooh poohed the idea that our Bermuda match was fixed when seshu and maruthi(my bro n sis)proposed that theory...Now,comes the news that woolmer was murdered and it might very well have something to do with match fixing. Plainly he did not like the way things are going on.

I, myself was not too much perturbed. My cricket watching days were over...that was when Gavaskar and Viswanath were in their prime, and arguments regularly broke out in our household over who was the better classicist,,.with suri babai rooting for vishy and others campaigning for Gavaskar,..while, dad ,always a maverick, liked Madan lal orSsolkar or Chauhan.....yeah....those were the days...India hardly ever won any match and when it did win one, a severe drought followed for quite some years later....I remember what happened after the famous KAPIL"DEVILS cup.......The most funny thing happened when those players, who retired just then reappeared as commentators... clucked their tongues,.gravely shook their heads, and reprimanded the present ones for being hasty,.....should not go for hooks, late cuts,.should not be lax in running in between wickets,......I got to wonder why they did not do all that when THEY played. ....i kept it till late eighties and gradually lost interest.

This match fixing concept started from Azharuddin days,i think...My brother and uncle used to bring in all sorts of veranda rumours....that Azhar"s brother himself was a bookie,...Azhar used to change caps to indicate a coded signal to the bookies.i mean, he wears a red cap and it meant one thing.,..he wears a green cap and it means some other thing.......Seshu was sure the test we lost to Pakistan, where Sachin scored a 90+,got out and a procession of sorts followed with all the others getting out for a mere handful of runs was fixed.So also was the Pakistani loss to Bangladesh in the last world cup .

"why don"t you first stop watching for starters?" i asked my husband.

"It is not watching" he readily backtracked. "it is the betting that is the chief culprit.the filthy lucre of easy money."

" ok.so,how is one going to stop this?"i led him on.

"yeah,..that is tough" he conceded."no way one can really put a lid on it.even the altu faltu matches between Bandar hindu college and Edepalli cricket club (btw, has anyone ever heard of "em?)are betted upon."

"when u can"t beat"em, join"em. that is my motto" i declared.

"give u one idea. why don"t we have wwf cricket matches from now on?" i suggested.

"left to my self i liked those fixed matches immensely.there was color,..suspense,thrills,heart stopping catches,and even one or two miracles(that was how it struck watchers)"i reasoned. "just like the wwf fisticuffs.as if an astute script writer , who has got the pulse of the people, wrote down a taut screen play....one knows it is fixed but still can"t stay away and goes through all the thrills".I warmed up to the idea." you see.one can call in the best of script writers, pack in the most stunning sequences and make a huge hit".

"what do you say?"i interrupted my husband as he sat immersed in watching the Australia , west indies match on telly.

He merely glowered at me.