Agreed, the Vikram Bhat-directed film Jannat, which has its premise on match fixing, could have been better. But then, it’s a love story with match fixing just as a backdrop. And as it is, the film is engaging enough.
However, its Engage Quotient could have been several notches higher if it had uncovered several intricacies involving the plague affecting one and all… even now i feel many cricket matches are being regularly fixed for greater gain. How else can you explain a world-beating team like Australia fall for Kenya in the World Cup preliminaries? There’s definitely more to it than meets the eye.
But what is even more evident is that match fixing is very much alive and well. Everytime i see an infallible team go down without much of a fight, i see the head of match fixing rearing its ugly head.
I feel IPL matches will soon go the same way. After all, it’s the age of ‘show me the money’. And the age of ‘greed is good’. So soon enough, you will have matches of IPL being fixed, this time by corporate houses, to redefine the meaning of unpredictability in cricket. And we, hapless viewers, will lap it up without a raised finger. Why? Because it’s entertainment. Just the way the WWF and WWE matches are fixed.
The day won’t be far when players will play all the overs even if the winning score could have been reached in half the time. Why? Because they want to make cricket an ‘edge of the seat’ entertainer. Much like a racy Hollywood thriller.
I haven’t watched a cricket match in its entirety for over 10 years now. After match fixing made its presence felt, i haven’t paid much attention to who is winning or losing. Sooner or later, i will know that this match was also fixed. So why be a ‘bakra’?