Is it time to shrug off the cricket hangover when nothing seems to be going right with it — from form to the way it functions? Shouldn’t we embrace other sports such as badminton, tennis, hockey and wrestling, which have brought nothing but accolades for the country?

CHANDER SHEKHAR LUTHRA// Cricket was a game about a bat and a ball until 2007, after which it became a game of roulette and black jack. Lalit Modi brought the concept of 20-20 format into the sport and the Indian Premier League was born. A number of cricket administrators didn’t like the idea of IPL, but since leading politicians and industrialists were involved in it, their vote didn’t count.

IPL was pitched to the BCCI as a golden goose. It was to be cricket’s greatest catch. A team owner could make a fortune by spending about Rs 30-40 crore annually.

Then there was the glamour attached to it. Why, Preity Zinta became the face of Kings’ XI Punjab by holding just 1 per cent stake. Shilpa Shetty may have had a minority stake in Rajasthan Royals’, but she and her husband, Raj Kundra, were calling the shots until the recent fiasco when the latter has been banned for life. Like Kundra, Chennai Super Kings’ owner and BCCI former disgraced president N Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyyapan was actively involved with the team on a daily basis.

Together, they knew who Mahendra Singh Dhoni would start the batting order with, who was going to come at what batting position and so on. In hindsight, one can say everything was organised, planned and betted on meticulously.

The real games started when a conflict of interest grew amongst the teams and their owners. Before the IPL, a player representing India got about Rs 30 to 40 lakh a year, plus a few endorsements. Today, a cricket player gets nothing less than Rs 6 to 10 crore. And for what? Facing 20-30 balls, or bowling 24 legitimate deliveries? You know it’s a sad state when skill and patience have been replaced by greed and tamasha.

Indian cinema superstar Shahrukh Khan (SRK) is one fine example. His connection with cricket before IPL was like any other Indian male, who may have dabbled in it at school or probably at college level. Then why did he choose to spend the entire duration of IPL with his team Kolkata Knight Riders’ when we all know that his one day earning in Bollywood could well be a few crores? Or, why would a businessman such as Vijay Mallaya, who has been fighting bankruptcy and losing his “good times” status, want to be seen around the IPL circus throwing king-size parties?

Surely, it’s not just for the love of the game. Owning an IPL team is like having an insider trading in the share market. You own a team and you can dictate terms. No great mathematical knowledge is required to understand this simple calculation.

And we Indians worship our film stars, be it SRK, Shilpa Shetty, or Preity Zinta. There’s just too much glamour quotient in it for us to question the person’s values or morals. These stars are marketed tactfully, alongside cricket.

Earlier, a player was given resting time to enhance and hone his skill, take a break. After all, a sportsperson also needs time to practice and further improve his game. With IPL added to an already busy calendar of Indian cricketers — god bless their many endorsement deals — there is no such resting phase. Naturally, performances falter.

Cricket has now become a fodder for masala, too. Every other day, newspapers are splashed with cricket news and its many controversies – a great way to spice up your groggy morning, I say! What’s more, these news items have spilled out of the sports page and jostle for space with news on a Salman Khan movie — there’s drama, there is romance, and there is action. What more could you ask for?

Then there’s the BCCI, which runs sans any rules and refuses to acknowledge regulations. Is it any wonder that the sports ministry failed to bring it under the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI)? The BCCI also refuses to adhere to any doping laws set by international agency WADA. Former Sports Minister Ajay Maken lost his job because he took on a few powerful cricket administrators and introduced a new Sports Bill in 2013 before the Union Cabinet.

I applaud Justice R M Lodha for taking a quick and correct action and asking for the suspension of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. More skeletons may tumble out of the IPL closet yet. I feel the list of 13 names inside the sealed envelope submitted before the Supreme Court should be made public in order to win the trust of cricket lovers again.

And why has Srinivasan been allowed to continue as ICC chairman? Why has the BCCI not terminated the franchisee agreement of both teams penalised by the Justice Lodha Committee? Why did BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur rush to give a clean chit, without any investigation, to a senior Team India player Suresh Raina, whose name has cropped in every controversy over the past five years? Why is the BCCI being allowed to run like a cozy club for the sake of winning elections without actually giving affiliation to so many big states such as Bihar?

ROBIN SINGH// Cricket in India is a religion. People swear by it. More often than not, a business meeting or a romantic dinner date gets pushed to a secondary slot if there is a tournament on. People live, eat, and breathe cricket and no amount of controversy can take that away.

Luckily for us, the human mind has a short recall time. Take, for instance, the current IPL scandal. It has rocked the sports fraternity with its allegations but only for a short while. No one is really interested in the administration. People want to see cricket because of their passion for the game. It’s a team-oriented strategy that gives people a chance to sit with their friends and enjoy the game. It gives them a reason to meet and watch matches being screened live.

It improves the business of the restaurants and hotels, where people gather and cheer/ boo the teams. Large screens are set up, projectors are hired. Every small coffee shop or bar has a special IPL menu and large incentives are offered to lure people.

So, by way of cricket, we are actually giving people another reason to celebrate, converse and connect. We are so caught up in our daily existence that we forget to really live! In today’s remote-controlled world, where everyone is constantly glued to their iPads, laptops and phones, cricket comes as a breather.

People talk about an impending game on their morning walks, young men discuss runs and statistics, women ogle at their favorite idols, and children enroll for a special class. And we players absorb all the adulation and focus on our passion, so as to play even better, to rise even higher in our fans’ esteem.

Cricket is for the masses and that is the main reason that, despite all controversy surrounding it, the thrill of the game hasn’t reduced. If you ask a beggar on the street, who can’t read or write, about his favourite sportsman, nine out of 10 times, he will name a cricketer. He may not have food to eat, but he will knock on your car windowpane and ask you the latest runs tally. If India wins, there are fireworks in every part of the country. Every little village and town will celebrate in its own way. So you tell me, how can you shrug off this obsession? Neither did we instill it, nor can we take it away. Cricket is India’s fundamental strength and will remain so.

In a densely populated country like ours, people don’t even need stadiums. They play cricket with their peers on the streets. They play for the love of the game. They play so they can be as great as their icons.

I agree that the recent controversy has hurt Indian cricket, but for a few rotten apples, the entire basket can’t be thrown away, can it? The game is good, the players even better. It’s the administration that needs to change. We need former players to conduct assessments and take control of the game, and not politicians or industrialists who are in it only for the money. Only a cricketer can understand the emotional involvement this game has for the nation. The IPL has done wonders to cricket and can create miracles. For that, however, a clean-up drive is necessary. Stringent measures need to be taken against the wrongdoers so that there is no scope for scandals in future.

Meanwhile, India still wakes up every morning, looking forward to its Men in Blue! It’s the truth and no one can change that.