Reports | Not just players' greed but higher-ups also involved in KPL corruption

11/08/2019

Karnataka cricket experienced shock waves as many cricketers were charged for spot-fixing in the KPL but some players say that many higher authorities are also involved in the scandal. The big-name coming out was wicketkeeper captain CM Gautam who was a regular in the Karnataka Ranji team.

One of the shockers of KPL's spot-fixing scandal was police picking up Ranji Trophy regular CM Gautam on charges of match-fixing. His team-mates were shocked but also were very vocal about the developments of names of so many players coming out in the scandal.

"I don’t know about Gautam’s case but questions must be asked why there are so many players’ names are coming out," a player told The Indian Express.

"It’s easy to say that it was just the greed of the players but we definitely feel higher-ups are also involved. Then the players feel that corruption seems to be so rampant, and they go with it."

Gautam had a breakout 2012-13 season when he had scored 943 runs at an average of 118 consisting of two double hundreds and believed that he was mentally ready to play for India but was ignored by the selectors even after performing well for India A side and was disappointed about the ignorance showed towards him.

“Obviously, it was very disappointing. The way I was getting runs that year, no keeper has got that much runs in domestic cricket so far. I was picked in the India A to play Australia in Chennai. I got runs there as well, After that, I played a few more India A matches and never got a call after that. I thought I was ready at that point in time am ready now as well and it was disappointing,” he had told Sportskeeda.

Along with Gautam, there were many other players booked but some players also took the responsibility to stop this fixing from happening. One of the captains announced the playing eleven aftet the team huddle to ensure that the suspicious players stay out of the eleven and another captain was shocked seeing people come as far as from Haryana to watch the KPL matches. He believed that there was something not right and only time will unfold more hidden stories about this dark time in Karnataka cricket.

“I was thinking we aren’t that big, why would they come from so far? Definitely fishy, illegal betting and what not,” the player said.