New Delhi. Former Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar said that those responsible have shown a clear lack of seriousness in bringing about a law against corruption in Indian sports, which is why individuals like tainted former fast bowler S Sreesanth have strong evidence of spot-fixing in the 2013 IPL. Despite this, he survived. Also read: How much gold is worth… With a historic jump, the price of ten grams of gold crossed Rs 210,000…
Neeraj Kumar was in-charge of Delhi Police for 37 years, under his guidance the Special Cell of Delhi Police arrested Sreesanth and fellow Rajasthan Royals cricketers Ajit Chandila and Ankit Chavan on spot-fixing charges.
Former Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar
However, in 2019, the Supreme Court asked the BCCI to reconsider the lifetime ban on the former India player despite the evidence against him. The sentence was ultimately reduced to a seven-year suspension, which expired in September 2020.
“The matter has gone nowhere… Unfortunately, there is no law (in India) to deal with corruption in cricket or corruption in sports in general,” Kumar said during a special interaction with reporters at the news agency’s headquarters in New Delhi. “
The 70-year-old renowned former IPS officer said, “Even in a country like Zimbabwe, there is a specific law. It is there in Australia, New Zealand… there is a law in Europe because corruption is not only in cricket but also in football, tennis, golf.”
Kumar said the biggest hurdle in prosecuting corruption in sports is the lack of law. “For example, many things we do do not stand the test of judicial scrutiny. He regretted that if we say that people were cheated during match fixing, now the court will ask, show me one person who has cheated, produce him.
Explaining the gray areas, Kumar said, “Who will come to the court and say that I went to watch a cricket match with the expectation of fair play and everyone playing to the best of their ability? Therefore, in the absence of the victim, it becomes very difficult to prove the case.”
In India, a law to curb xenophobia has been in the works since 2013. The Prevention of Sporting Fraud Bill (2013), which was introduced in the Lok Sabha in 2018, provided for five years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10 lakh for those found guilty of sports fraud, including fixing.
The bill was drafted by Justice (retd) Mukul Mudgal and was seen as a game-changer to curb match-fixing. It was to replace the ‘Public Gambling Act 1867′, under which any person engaged in betting could be fined only Rs 200, or face three months’ imprisonment.
Sreesanth is back in the mainstream and also played Ranji Trophy for Kerala before retiring from first-class cricket. He is now seen in various Legends League and also gives expert opinions on various broadcasting platforms.
Neeraj Kumar said that the court has appreciated the work done by the police. The judge said that the special cell has done excellent work. Have worked very hard to expose this racket, but in the absence or void of law, I am not in a position to stop, convict and punish any of them, these were his exact words.
Kumar also feels that the case against former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin, who was embroiled in the 2000 scam, “was not allowed to be completed”. He said that if the Azharuddin case had been allowed to reach its logical conclusion, some very big names would have been exposed, but this too was not allowed.
Need for anti-corruption law in sports
Kumar believes that the government can earn goodwill by passing the anti-corruption bill pending in Parliament. He said, “If we have that law, the scenario will completely change, people will not go unpunished. “It’s a low hanging fruit… I don’t know why they’re not doing it.”
BCCI indifferent towards corruption
Kumar also got the opportunity to work as the head of BCCI’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) for about four years and he found the world’s richest board not to be honest in dealing with corruption. “…They were completely indifferent to the whole issue of corruption, and they did not give me the resources I needed,” he said.
The satisfaction of curbing private leagues
The BCCI provided only two people to assist Kumar and yet, he said, they managed to crack down on private leagues which were dens of corruption. “We successfully busted many cases… of private leagues where some people come together, and organize leagues only to indulge in fixing. “We were successful in stopping some of them.”
Stopped watching IPL
Sharing his experience, former IPS Neeraj Kumar said that this experience left him “quite disillusioned” with cricket in general. “I stopped watching IPL because I got very disappointed. “After working in BCCI, I am not as impressed with the game as I used to be.”