IPL Spot Fixing Scandal: Now The Umbilical…Sorry…The Umpiring Connection!

Whenever India does anything importantly right or wrong the Pakistan connection has to come up sooner or later. People of both countries like it or not. The Karachi based Don Dawood Ibrahim’s D-Company connection to the Indian Cricket betting racket was already established in the raging IPL Spot Fixing Scandal that grows sleazier every minute now. The unholy mix of cricketers, bookies, middlemen, BCCI and IPL franchisee officials, Bollywood stars and dons now proudly includes that of umpires too. So far the umpires have not been blamed for anything seriously harming the game except for some wrong or lousy decisions on the field. But now, Pakistan umpire Asad Rauf gets implicated thanks to arrested Bollywood actor Vindoo Dara Singh spilling the beans.

Asad Rauf has been on the elite umpiring panel of the International Cricket Council (ICC) since 2006 and was getting ready for duty in the forthcoming Championship Trophy in June. Although not exactly an umpiring blemishe, Rauf has had a scandalous controversy involving a Mumbai model in 2012. He came under the scanner of Mumbai Police after Vindoo revealed his connection to the bookies in terms of providing crucial match information from the field. This is one of the biggest blows this IPL scandal has delivered so far to cricket in India and now to Pakistan cricket lovers too.

The ICC, following the developments, promptly withdrew Asad Rauf from the elite panel thus canceling his engagements in the Champions Trophy. The ICC feels that this decision has been taken in best interests of Rauf as well as of sports.

Meanwhile, a Mumbai Police team today landed in Chennai on the trail of Gurunath Meiyappn, the son-in-law of the BCCI Chief cum CSK owner N Srinivasan and CEO of CSK franchise, following leads from Vindoo Dara Singh. Unbelievable as it seems, the police team struggled to get entry into Gurunath’s residence. Finally, he could not be traced and there was no response from him or from the BCCI Chief. Exasperated, Mumbai Police served a summons to him to appear by 5pm tomorrow for questioning. As par latest reports Gurunath has requested Mumbai Police to allow him to appear on Monday.

Now, what happens to the inquiry committee appointed by the BCCI to look into the matter of spot fixing? Would the committee be so powerful as to dare question its Chief? Silence prevails on all powerful fronts—the BCCI President is silent, the topmost cricketers are silent and all the political leaders irrespective of their parties are silent. This silence is that of big money, clout and vested interests. BCCI silent for reasons known to all, top cricketers silent for the stakes and political parties always sink their differences when it come to a common ground like big-money cricket. Therefore, in this respect how far the police investigations are going to be effective? Let us keep on hoping that Big Money is finally defeated and cricket cleaned forever. Three bookies were arrested in Mumbai today and several in Kolkata and other places making the total arrests so far more than fifty.

The VIP Brat: A Study in Contrast!

Here we’re talking about only two compartments inside a particular AC 2-Tier coach in a particular daily train under the Indian Railways that departs a particular originating station at around noontime and reaches the destination city early morning the next day. The train is popular because it is superfast and always on time. That fateful noon too, the train was ready for boarding about one hour before departure. We cut to the inside of that particular coach having those two compartments for our contrasting study. Two elderly couples were in a state of considerable distress. One of them, both technically senior citizens, had been allotted two upper berths and the husband was at his wits end how to proceed, because his wife was being taken for check-up after surgeries in both of her knees—she could hardly walk and her climbing up the berth was a sheer impossibility. The husband was also on the wrong side of the sixties, but he thought he could manage the climbing once he managed a ...

Mitali: The Trauma of Losing a Sibling

Maybe I lied to her when I used to reassure her that she was going to be alright and was going to resume her life in some measure of normalcy in the future years; maybe all my gestures/expressions were false when I used to run my fingers across her forehead or embrace her on occasions when she was able to move around a bit; and maybe all my exhibitions of love care and responsibility were exposed as superficial when I failed to turn up in Delhi where she along with my mother were treated during September-October, 2022 (my mother Urmila Chakravarty was also diagnosed with dental cancer the same month the same year as she was) and when all the members of my parental family and the in-laws converged. Since that fateful day in August, 2022 when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer to that disastrous day of March 6, 2025—the day my younger blood sister Mitali (Mainu) Chakravarty Sarma (November 2, 1963—March 6, 2025) passed away in the wee hours in a hospital in Guwahati after giving a bra...

Release of Book 'Randomized: A Dozen Short Stories'!

The fourth collection of stories titled 'Randomized: A Dozen Short Stories' by Chinmay Chakravarty has been released on Amazon KDP just now! This collection, short stories in a lighter vein plus with mild satire like the previous collections, has been published in both the E-book and Paperback formats. The links are given below: International: Click Here ! India: Click Here ! Other collections of short stories by the same author: The Cheerless Chauffeur and Other Tales(2021)--Notion Press. Funny and Fishy Tales(2022)--KDP. The Weirdos(2022)--Ukiyoto Publishing. All books of the author are available on Goodreads, apart from Amazon and other outlets! Have a look!