Cricket in India needs Clean India campaign

N Srinivasan is a very pious man. When he is not wearing business suits, he frequents temples, wears the traditional dhoti and seeks blessings from the Almighty.

As an ardent devotee of Lord Balaji in the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple hill shrine, Srinivasan’s contribution to the laddu making machinery is well known. Nowadays, Srinivasan also invokes the Divine Mother in Kerala.

On Monday, it was not the superior unseen forces guiding Srinivasan but the Supreme Court coming down heavily on the cricket czar. It was almost as if all the noises which Srinivasan had been making in the last one week, wanting to be reinstated as the BCCI boss, coming down like a thud.

Conflict of interest, ruining cricket, owning an IPL team, running the IPL for mutual gains for the BCCI, Srinivasan had to hear the harshest comments in the court room which he had not expected.

In the first place, it was misleading on Srinivasan’s part to have made a plea he be reinstated as the BCCI boss. His plea was that the "final" report submitted by Justice Mudgal did not indict him. Truth is this was the second report and had to be read in conjunction with the first report submitted by Justice Mudgal in February.

It is well known Srinivasan consults astrologers and even for fixing BCCI meeting date and time, he takes expert advice from them. But when the stars are not in your favour and the Supreme Court is hearing a matter of such great importance where the credibility of cricket has to be reinstated, no astro guru can help.

Take the example of godmen who have a long free run before the long arm of law catches up. It happened to even high profile Guru Rampal in Hisar last week.

At this point of time, each cricket fan in India wants to see clean cricket. Forget what is going to happen Down Under where the Indian team faces the Aussies in a tough series.

At home, the mess and filth of IPL-6 which has sullied the image of the game needs something like a "Swaach Bharat Abhiyaan". From greedy officials to people involved with the IPL franchises in various capacities and from bookies to players, each one has had a free run in destroying the fabric of the IPL.

In coming days, I would not be surprised even if names of prominent players comes out in the open. There is a big guessing game going on as to who is No 2 on the list and who the No 3 is. The real "das numbrees" need to be brought to book. And only the Supreme Court can do it for us cricket fans.