The indecent exposure in a highly-viewed and praised Indian Premier League, better known by its abbreviated name IPL, has broken hearts of a good many supporters, viewers, wholehearted fans and well wishers.  The most shocking episode turned out to be when the rulers and keepers of the game who try to demonstrate themselves as trustees turn in fact power brokers in pretense. This way IPL shattered not only the trust of people but lost all its appeal and charm, lost all spirit of competition and broke the law.

This is just one reference. Match fixing has always been prevalent and will be there till a long time to come in every sport, especially cricket. It is much more prevalent in sports of lower leagues and status because they are lesser scrutinized. In sports and leagues with big name, money, status and power fixings are risky and perhaps a bit easier in individual as the audience, fan following, as well as the media coverage is very high. The greed and strong desire to become millionaires overnight especially among the cricketers have provided ample opportunities to the match fixers, middlepersons and even made way to underworld involvement.

Some of the sports have lost their initial appeal. What once used to be cherished as fair play and enthusiastic is not the same anymore. Money has stepped in and every bit has lost its luster. Commercialization has made way and much of this has a negative perception on the audience who keep viewing different companies and their propaganda, or their favorite sports star dancing to a stupid theme song. The biggest example of commercialization again has to be IPL, where so much of money is spent on auctions, management teams, players, advertisements and performances by top national and international celebrities that have deluded the direction of the main motive of the sport. When we talk about the Indian Premier League, we talk of big business and refer to a multimillion business venture with very little nationalist passion and motivation for the game. Players are treated as commodities and their human rights violated all as if to generate the best outcomes of the money that has been invested in them. Players are put up in advertisements and made to endorse brands but get so little as compared to what the company makes out of it. The players are then maltreated and exploited when we think about it.

While this happens, each player is trying his or her best to be the top notch not only as humans strive for perfection and outdoing others like as in earlier but for the benefits that come along, like being opted as the popular face for a commercial or for reality shows. With media as widely spread and received as of this date each player has the ravenousness to become known all over. For this, once they bang upon their performances there paves a way for them to be popular even among the non sport viewers – the media. Then the sport based audiences are disappointed if their favorite sports star doing so well loses his focus on the game and focuses more towards the brand he is asked to endorse.

To be on the top players are indulging in immoral ways and killing the spirit of sport. Doping is one big threat to the sport we love watching. Doping kills the competition of the sport right away and is just a momentary stimulator but in the long run hampers the health of the user. Winning at any cost and to be on par with other athletes, over fifty percent Olympics participants have acknowledged the statement that they would be willing to take chemical boosters if it guarantees them the winning spot provided they know the detrimental effects too well. When the world learned of Lance Armstrong and his deception it came out as shock to the world. Coming from the legend of cycling it was sad to know how he had not been honest all these years.

All these actions destroy what we love and cherish as sports. While people argue about harsh punishments being introduced along with lifelong bans, that is not the end. Our players need to understand the ethics and our sentiments, excitements, support and love for the game, for them. Our frustrations end after smearing the posters of our once favorite sportsperson and we start loathing the game and the greed that flooded it but what about the immoral and unfair practices that permeated into sports along with money and took all of it down to nothing? Does that have an end or will it proliferate into a bigger giant?