The Union Law Ministry is mulling a new anti-fixing legislation after the latest scandal in the Indian Premier League with three Rajasthan Royals cricketers arrested for spot-fixing and other under the scanner, Sports Minister Jitendra SIngh said in Delhi on Thursday.
“We are in touch with the Home Ministry and the Law Ministry to work out the law. We will consult the Attorney General before moving forward,” said Mr Singh.
“It is necessary that there is a law or a deterrent. There is no guarantee that this is not happening in other sports. Who knows it might have started in other sports as well,” he cautioned.
Insisting that a deterrent law could have prevented the credibility crisis that cricket is facing right now, Mr SIngh said he had been forced to hang his head in shame due to the IPL spot-fixing scandal. “It is very shameful. As a young person, as a sports fan, as the Sports Minister of the country, my head hangs in shame today,” Mr. Singh said.
“There should be some mechanism so that it doesn’t happen again. And it is not only about cricket. We are talking about cricket because of this expose but there are other sports as well,” he said.
The Minister however, refused to comment on the links emerging between bookies and IPL team owners such as Chennai Super Kings’ Gurunath Meiyappan. “That’s an investigation, I can’t say anything on that,” he said.
When asked if the government should have come up with a an anti-fixing law when the first such cricketing scandal broke out in 2000, Mr. Singh said, “What has happened in the past, I can’t comment on that but the government today is very proactive.”
“There should have been a law earlier but better late than never,” he added.
