Will Sport ever have its "Arab Spring"?

The world of sport has been grappling with the scourge that is "match-fixing", "spot-fixing" and "illegal betting" for quite some time now. Football has had to deal with a number of such cases, and so has Cricket, which is, to use a cliched term, a religion in the Indian sub-continent.

Over the past decade or so, a disturbing pattern seems to have emerged. A fixing scandal is busted (usually by the media, and not by the governing bodies whose job it is to protect the integrity of the sport). A huge uproar ensues. Governing Bodies, Investigative Agencies and Judicial Bodies swing into action. A few "bits and pieces" players and bookies are caught. Bans are imposed, and in some cases, criminal charges are pressed against those found guilty. Governing Bodies promise to ramp up on anti-corruption education programmes to prevent such incidents from recurring. All the right noises are made. And then the bandwagon rolls on. As if nothing ever transpired.

Over the weekend just gone by, we were witness to 2 nerve-wracking games: The first game was the Champions League final between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid, which the latter won after equalizing during injury time, and then pumping in 3 more goals to win 4-1. The second game was the IPL match between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals, which the former won after pulling off an incredible chase of 189 runs in a mere 14.4 overs.

In the case of the IPL match, many followers on social media were wondering if the match was fixed. And that to me, is the real tragedy that confronts many sporting aficionados today. "What if the Champions League final was fixed?" "What if the IPL is a scripted entertainment product?"

While such thoughts may haunt me, I am not sure if most of the fans care? Telford Vice, a South African journalist of repute puts it very succinctly when he says that "Cricket chooses its supporters like a painter chooses canvases: those most receptive to its passions will hold its colours brightest and best. The fans, not the players nor the arenas nor the competitions, lend cricket its magnificence. Without them, the game would be just a game. It would not matter. The sound of a six hit deep into a stand silent with emptiness is the sound of a tree falling in the forest, unheard and unloved.

That means it is up to the fans, not the press nor the ICC nor even the police, to decide whether match-fixing matters. If the folks who buy their own tickets to matches or give up their own time to stare at their own televisions enjoy cricket just the way it is, who is anyone to tell them they should not bother with something crooked?"

And therein lies the tragedy that a "true sports lover" i.e. someone who cares for the integrity of the game and resents sport being reduced to an "entertainment product", needs to front up to.

The fact of the matter is that the IPL, like all other leagues that have been hit by fixing scandals, continues to run to packed stadia in the season that has followed its biggest fixing and illegal betting scandal. Clearly, fans don't seem to care about the deep rot that underlies the product. Because fans don't seem to care, sponsors don't have any incentive to pull the plug on their sponsorship deals (at best, sponsorship deal values may have plummeted in the aftermath of a scandal) , administrators continue to lurch from one governance crisis to another, and most players continue to remain blase when asked about the integrity of their sport.

This therefore begs the question "Will Sport ever have its "Arab Spring"? How many fixing scandals are needed to be unearthed before (a) sponsors terminate their lucrative sponsorship deals; (b) administrators actually wake up to preserve the integrity of sport; and (c) players realise the damage caused to the fabric of sport?

Be you a fan, brand manager, administrator or a player, do you think preservation of sporting integrity really matters? Let me know your thoughts!

The Author is a Sports Lawyer and Consultant based in Bangalore, India.