For some people Indian Premier League is a money making tournament and for some it’s a tournament played by one of the best cricket professionals with fully honesty towards the management and towards their fans and loved ones.
There are many instances that have proved that IPL is just another tournament to earn money whereas there are some instances that proved that IPL is a game of legends, played with full honesty and kindness towards each and every sportsperson.
Let’s just talk about the instances that will lead us to make a decision about whether it is another tournament to earn money or it’s truly a game of wise men playing a game with a mindset to win with honesty rather than with cheating:
- In July 2015 one of the best IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings led by Captain Cool, was suspended for the next two seasons as they were caught doing match-fixing and some of the highly named individuals were put behind bars.
- IPL is a foxed league: This has to be the biggest myth in the history of IPL that the IPL matches are fixed even before the match starts. It has been said that both the teams playing the match most of the times knows who’s going to win the match or when a batsman is going to hit a six or a four and who is going to score how many runs.
- In 2015 Rajasthan Royals was the second IPL franchise who got banned for two IPL seasons for spot-fixing. It was said that the owner of the franchise Raj Kundra was also involved in the fixing racket and that was the reason he sold the franchise to someone else.
- Sreesanth: Indian pacer Sreesanth was banned for lifetime in 2013 as he was caught doing match-fixing. Delhi Police arrested three cricketers for match-fixing which include Sreesanth, Ajeet Chandila, and Ankit Chavan on the charges of alleged spot-fixing. In 2016, all the three players were banned for lifetime from all forms of cricket by the BCCI. However in March 2019, the Supreme Court lifted the life ban imposed by BCCI on Sreesanth.
In life there are two sides of everything one negative and one positive, now let’s talk about the incidents that shown the honesty of players towards the game:
- Virat Kohli: In 2016, Kohli leaves no stone unturned as he scored a century against Kings X1 Punjab with eight stitches in hand. The passion for the game shown by Virat Kohli was tremendous and it was something that not every cricketer has the gut to do on the field. The love shown for the game by Virat Kohli was unmatched.
- Shane Watson: In 2019 IPL final, Watson scored a 59 ball 80 with his left knee injured. With an injured knee Watson scored a match winning knock in the final of the 2019 IPL season but unfortunately the knock turned out to be came from the losing side of the match. The patience and love for the team and the game shown by Shane Watson during the 2019 IPL final was something no one can ever believe. Everyone must have chaired for Chennai to win the finals after watching Watson playing with an injured knee.
No one is perfect in this world everyone makes mistakes but at the end of the day they have to bear the consequences of their actions.