Sunny days are here again?

Before the intervention of Supreme Court - 

Welcome to the Board of Control for "Cements" in India. Oops, or was the word "Cricket"?

The highest Court in India has set the ball rolling. Something that should not have happened in an Utopian state has happened in the most loved game Indians play, watch and comment on. Fixing, to be precise. Something that should have been nipped in the bud by the administrators. Why - because some of the administrators were allegedly involved too! Its only now that the pressure has mounted on the Indian board to right the wrongs they did last year. And that too 3 weeks prior to the next IPL season.

Now, it's no surprise that the President of the board is also the owner of a Corporate group. It's also no surprise that the captain of Team India is the Vice President of the aforementioned corporate group. But what surprised me that the roots have spread across cricketing circles. There are Cricketers who are employees of the group. There are ex-cricketers too in the payroll. The internal auditor and Financial Officer of the Cricket Body are employees. Not to mention some of the administrators of the Cricket board! Check this article from the Times of India. All are part of one corporate group who's owner is the president of the Cricket board (and soon to be head of World Cricket) and who's VP is the captain of Team India. If this is not a case of "conflict of interest", I wonder what is!

After the intervention of Supreme Court - 

Based on their recommendations, following actions will be carried out with immediate effect - 

1. Mr. N Srinivasan to step down from the BCCI president post to ensure fair investigation: I don't think there will be a single Cricket lover in this world who is not fine with this recommendation. Its fair, logical and should have happened a long time ago. Just to be clear, the recommendation is not to step-aside, but to step down.
2. Employees of the corporate group will be removed from whatever positions they have in Cricket board: Another fair decision, but should have never happened in the first place.
3. Mr. Sunil Gavaskar to be interim president till IPL-7 is over: Sunny days in the midst of a storm? Surprisingly, the Cricket board has called Gavaskar an "Outsider". It is possibly from an administrative perspective. Mr. Gavaskar is one of the most capable candidate to lead the Indian Cricket board not only at an interim level, but as a permanent president. A former cricketer and his team (possibly his former colleagues) should be given the reins of the richest board. After all, the future is at stake.
4. Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals will participate in IPL-7: The initial proposal of a ban was unfair. Only a handful of players and team personnel were allegedly involved in the scandal. Why punish players who were not even aware of this? Why punish the fans of CSK and RR? Moreover, banning the 2 teams would have reduced IPL-7 to a 6 team tournament which will turn IPL-7 into more of a demo-version of the original IPL. Not even neutral fans would like to see such a tournament. Thankfully, sanity prevailed and CSK and RR will participate in IPL-7.

Passing the baton? Maybe the expression says it all!

The good news for IPL fans is that the 7th edition is very much on. All teams will play. A former cricketer will preside over the tournament. And the game they believed in for life-eternal will undergo a cleansing process - hopefully for the better. 

IPL and Cricket as a Global Sport are now at crossroads. The cleaning process has to start and start at the earliest. The immediate losses can be compensated by installing faith among the fans. The road ahead will be bumpy but it needs to be traversed to have a "Happily ever after" feeling.