MUMBAI—
The spectre of ‘book-fixing’ raised its ugly head at the annual inter-school ‘book cricket’ competition last Sunday, the 8th of May 2011.
The school championship , over the years, has been dominated by Shuddersharam English Medium School and Potter High School.
This year, it was no different.
The final saw familiar antagonists confronting each other.
However, to experts’ and discerning followers’ surprise, Potter High School ran away victors trashing their opponents 900-300 in a one-sided victory, completely overturning the form book.
Shuddersharam were unbeaten through the tournament, unlike Potter who barely managed to scrape through the league phase.
It was much later when an inspection was conducted of the tomes utilized in the competition that the fraud perpetrated by Potter High School was discovered.
Not a single page number in the text-books used by the home team was a multiple of 10. That is, each page ending with the number x8 was immediately followed by page x2.
The home team deceived their rivals with a ‘switch hit’ in which they had fresh text-books printed specifically for the finals.All their book cricketers used the ‘doctored’ books.
Their adversaries , on the other hand, played with reputed text-books.
“This is the first time in the history of the tournament that a team has stooped to this level of underhand tactics. The sophisticated method of cheating leads us to believe that there is money and betting involved. Our sources tell us that bookies are livid because the odds favoured Shuddershram.” said Mr. Kantelal, a school inspector assigned to the case.
“In the past, cheating at book cricket simply meant tearing out the ‘offending’ pages. Or at most, an attempt to overwrite the ‘0’ with a ‘6’. This, however, is extraordinary. The very survival of the sport has been thrown into question.” said Mr. Koria, a ‘book cricket’ historian.
Potter High School were disqualified and Shuddershram crowned deserving victors. In addition, Potter HS were banned from the tournament for the next three years.
The Maharashtra Secondary School Board appointed a high-level committee to delve into the matter. A delegation consisting of three school inspectors will visit each of the participating schools to monitor and supervise intra-school competitions.
“We believe that such instances should be nipped in the bud.” said Mr. Satnakar Hetty.
Shuddershram has produced noted ‘book cricketers’ such as Sochin Mindulkar and Pinod Tamblie, who have gone on to represent their colleges and universities.
Mr. Technology suggested that e-readers are the way forward and that using print books is old-fashioned.
The Book Cricket Control Body (BCCB) shot down the suggestion saying that “what occurred violated the very ‘Spirit of the Game’. It strikes at the ethos of all notions of fair play. Technology cannot be a substitute for moral fibre.”
(All facts and “quotes” in this article are made up, but you knew that already, didn’t you?)
Quote of the day:
If you don’t find it in the index, look very carefully through the entire catalogue. – Unknown
Make Time For Sports. 
Discussion
Comments are closed.