Tuesday 27 April 2010

Shades of match fixing in IPL

Well this has been the news that has been making rounds since the latter part of the third edition of the Indian Premier League wherein the match fixing issue has taken precedence. This is after a decade that someone is charged with a match fixing offense or more than less atleast hinted to be one such thing. And, if this edition of the IPL is considered, as a cricket blogger, I can sense some hints which suggests that match fixing has indeed taken place especially after I suggested some major turnarounds in few of my earlier posts wherein most of the teams have lost after betters had their say on the losing team.

To start with, the major shocking news in this edition of the IPL was the defeat of the Mumbai Indians in the finals of the tournament to the Chennai Superkings by a margin which is needless at the moment. When most of the betters having their money invested in favor of the Mumbai Indians to win the trophy, a major blow would have been received after the same team crashed out in the finals much to anybody's surprise. One side of the coin comes in for all praise towards the Chennai Superkings for winning the trophy when all odds had termed them off after most of their key international players like Flintoff, Oram and Mike Hussey bowed down to injuries.

The other side of the coin suggests that may be the Mumbai Indians intentionally lost the game in the finals and also the Deccan Chargers might have intentionally lost to the Chennai Superkings in the semi finals. Semi finals was the third encounter between the Chennai and Hyderabad team which Chennai was playing after losing to them earlier twice. Of course, Chennai had beaten Mumbai earlier in the league stages but, odds always supported Mumbai which no one can deny. Anyone there to say that they expected the Chennai Superkings to return victorious? May be if your heart goes towards Chennai.

So was the case in the match which was played as a third off stand which would decide as to which team would make it to the Champions Trophy this year due in South Africa. Once again, the Royal Challengers Bangalore were facing a Deccan Chargers team which had beaten them convincingly in the earlier two encounters played in this edition. And, if one looks at the way the Deccan Chargers lost that important match when they failed to cross the 100 run mark, shades of match fixing has to be there. One has to decide as to how can a team play for 18+ overs and still score less than 100.

These are just a few points which suggest that matches might have been fixed in this year's IPL. Similar such cases exist in the earlier two editions as well.

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