After almost 23 years, the mud of cricket match-fixing was raised in India. Delhi Police bustedA new documentary comes out on Netflix that recounts the era from people involved from all sides.
Sports journalists who used to be jealous of being paid to do what they love – watch cricket – are suddenly forced out of their familiar spheres and have to take on the role of investigative reporters. Renowned sports journalist Sharda Ugra accepts in film get caught“When it came to issues like betting, I was completely naive.”
match fixing saga in india Cricket The late 90s and early 2000s saw many cricket fans shy away from the game for good. But many others were in a state of denial. A few bad apples, on and off the field, will not affect the integrity of those who represented their countries with honor and integrity. The game always finds ways to pull you back.
Caught: Crime. Corruption. Cricket (English)
director: Supriya Sobti Gupta
Order: 77 minutes
mold: Anirudh Behl, Minty Tejpal, Sharda Ugra, Ravi Sawani, Neeraj Kumar, Murali Krishnan
Summary: Feature-length documentary that uncovers the biggest match-fixing scandal to ever rock the world of international cricket.
One must remember that Indian cricket in the 90s was not running on cash thanks to the IPL, unlike the previous 15 years. So the lure of taking some extra money from under the table was very tempting for some players who didn’t come from wealth.
While cricket’s governing bodies have raised their vigil, why should that era be visited or revisited now? As cricket attracts more new fans, those born after 2000, it is important to know about Indian cricket’s dark past as well. Is it possible to cover it all in a 77 minute film? Probably not.
Cricket fans from previous generations are bound to roll their eyes, as the film tells them what they already know. But keep in mind this is going for a global audience. The film walks you through the basics, as told by journalists who exposed match-fixing like Anirudh Behl.
The film aptly begins with the author breaking the story on the cover of the June 1997 Outlook magazine called “India’s Worst Kept Secret”, which chronicled the Tehelka tapes, the CBI investigation, and the subsequent banning of superstar national captains Hansie Cronje and Mohammad Azharuddin, who all feature in the film.
An accidental sports reporter, Behl says it helped that he was an outsider. He says that the cricket journalist fraternity at that time shied away from writing anything controversial, so when they smelled something fishy, bookies would regularly call to get updates on team composition. , pitch conditions, etc. He dug deeper to expose the shady nexus between bookies and some players.
Then begins the cinematic retelling of the saga. Conversation-leading interviews with journalists such as Bahl, Ugra, Sriram Karri, Murali Krishnan, and Tehelka co-founder Minty Tejpal add color and background on the world of cricket betting, the underworld (read Dawood Ibrahim) and its connection to Indian cricket. With its climax, in the absence of proper gatekeepers, it was vulnerable to corruption and exploitation. This was partly due to the ignorance of the Indian Cricket Board.
Provocative Tejpal is equal parts amusing in his storytelling and disturbing in his self-abasement. However, another senior journalist, Pradeep Magazine, who has written extensively on cricket corruption, does not feature for whatever reason.
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The man who does not appear in person, but is nevertheless a central character to much of the archival footage, is Manoj Prabhakar, the Indian all-rounder who made the explosive claim that Kapil Dev paid him ₹25 lakh to throw a game was offered. Behl and Tejpal explain how they skillfully brought Prabhakar on board to conduct the sting operation – using covert cameras rarely used in India – which formed the basis of the Tehelka documentary “Fallen Heroes”.
A lot has happened due to the grace of one such hero Mohammad Azharuddin. Top CBI officers Ravi Sawani and Neeraj Kumar recall how the bureau interrogated his various properties, and interrogated him at the CBI office where Azhar, presented with documents, first confessed after stoning them. Like Azhar, Indian batsman Ajay Sharma has also been banned for life by the BCCI. However, there was no mention of other Indian players who got lesser bans due to their collusion with bookies.
The list of lapses features the bizarre one-day match at Kanpur in 1994 where Prabhakar and Nayan Mongia did not convert their winning runs against the West Indies. Kapil is seen vehemently protesting Prabhakar’s “vindictive” claims, but there is no mention of his breakdown during a BBC interview when he was questioned about the horrors his family had endured. The film explores the background and dealings of prominent bookie MK Gupta – whose dealings with Azhar and Sharma led to his downfall – but nothing about bookie Sanjeev Chawla or Rajesh Kalra, the big names in the Cronje case.
And anyone without prior knowledge of this saga might wonder whether cricket corruption originated in India and spread elsewhere. Has anyone forgotten such an innocent neighbor Pakistan? There is interesting material on this in the web and in books, but not in this movie.
get caught Stylish, flashy, dramatic, and yet feels unfinished… just like Azhar’s career.