Roll back the clock..

Abraham Lincoln's famous words "To test a man's character give him power" seem to make all the more sense today. Money has always been synonymous with power and the lure of excessive money has almost always meant abuse of power..The entire IPL financial fraud controversy is a classic case in point..Cricket in its infancy and early years in India was a passion straight from the heart and loved by one and all. The last two decades have seen such a spurt in investments in the game and reduced the actual focus on the nuances of the game itself. Nearly every aspect of the game has been commercialised and the money in the game is way beyond anyone's comprehension..The fraud and financial allegations often are only the beginning of the story. Much more emerges slowly and all this does is taint the already adulterated game..

The IPL, as an idea, was fantastic. The T-20 format was lucrative, attractive and promised to increase viewership all round. India was the best market simply because of the burgeoning market for cricket and the marriage of this idea with Bollywood and other entertainment meant that the end product would be an instant success..The auctions involving top players looked ugly at times, but once the cricket started, the world was hooked onto it..For the best part of three seasons, everything seemed perfect. All this suddenly looked different the moment two new franchises were formed. This in itself was not the problem. The humongous budget which ran into more than a thousand crores left even the cash rich cricket fraternity gasping. Soon, eyebrows were raised, names were brought up and things got downright dirty. Politicians, IPL heads, franchise owners were all entangled in the mother of all scams. Much as I hope cricket comes out of all this clean which it probably will considering the love the people have for the game which far surpasses the interest in commercialisation and the urge to rake in the moolah, I can't help but look back at those days when the sport was all about appreciating its finer aspects and money had not raised its ugly head..

All it takes to understand how and why cricket runs in our blood is to have a conversation with someone who watched the game through the 1950's through the 1980's. I have had the good fortune of being able to do so and also the interest to try and have these chats when I get the chance. The joy is evident in the eyes when these 'uncles' talk about watching Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy. Ladies loved the charming Pataudi and handsome Durrani. The stylish Viswanath defying the pace of Andy Roberts draws the biggest cheers. Appreciation is rife for the solid batting of Gavaskar and the phenomenal Kapil Dev's exploits. This period was characterized by abounding love for the game and very little regard for the money that came with it. Talk about Chepauk 1974 and you can see the gleam. The mention of the 1983 World Cup and 1985 world championship wins which incidentally was the first tournament to be aired on television in India is enough to get them to talk incessantly..Cricket in India changed post the 1983 World Cup triumph..TV coverage began in full flow and children in every street were playing cricket wherever they could...Enter the era of Tendulkar, Kumble, Dravid and ganguly and the game was bigger than ever..The World cup in 1996 changed the entire idea of cricket..Advertisements galore came in, sponsorships increased exponentially and soon the game was hardly distinguishable from entertainment..This was especially true in case of ODI cricket and even more so in Twenty20..India's win in the T-20 World Cup 2007 resulted in cricket embarking on an era in which I have found very little to appreciate..Everywhere one looks around, money seems to have enveloped the game. The great game with all its fantastic features, the statistics, the extraordinarily diverse players, the one on one contests and most of all the inherent charm seems to be sucked out as the game is abbreviated..

Cricket has been exceptionally flexible allowing for experimentation with the format and rules, yet this has been the biggest flaw as well as it has brought many evils, the biggest being the gargantuan flow of cash..I hope this lovely game is cleaned soon and am sure the best way forward is to roll the clock back...