The Indian Premier League has been fined Rs 5.75 crores for the noise pollution caused by its semi-finals and flashy star studded final match of the season held at Mumbai's D.Y Patil stadium.

What of the moral pollution and corruption the game has promoted under the cash rich IPL empire? Large scale tax evasion, payment of kick-backs and huge facilitation fees, illegal funding, money laundering are among the charges leveled against the suspended chairman of the IPL, Lalit Kumar Modi. Modi who once faced drug addiction and abduction charges in the US was known for his luxurious life style. With high-society involvement, the game acquired a glamour. Bollywood stars became close cousins of the cricketing fraternity and their combination had a deadly impact on middle class youth hooked on to entertainment of all sorts.

Glitzy post-match partying with the high and mighty held lot of attraction for the youth. Half-clad cheer leaders are said to add to the glamour value.

Shashi Tharoor, a former UN diplomat and lately a promising politician, and Lalit Kumar Modi, grandson of a well known industrialist fell victims to the game of cricket. Exposure of the-deep rooted corruption in the only international sports asset created in India has received wide publicity and the market value of franchises and the cash-rich game itself will be hit severely.

Unreal world:
For too long cricketers and their fans have built an unreal world of heroes, glamour and style and corrupted the public tastes and priorities. The empire has come crashing down with the heroes turning into villains. Villainy does not consist in making money but in making cricket the opium of the masses. It has corrupted the youth, twisted their priorities. Now what is trivial has become important.

Entertainment is all there is to life, if one is to judge by how the game of cricket has come to govern the affairs of the nation.

Not long ago when compulsions of a general election and security considerations against terrorist threat made it impossible for the government to spare security personnel to conduct the IPL matches, cricket lovers managed to take teams and cricket to South Africa. Cricket had then become a higher priority than elections!

Tharoor is thoroughly educated. He loved cricket. He loved Kerala. But what prompted him to think that more than everything, Kerala needed an IPL team? Has he not read about the problem haunting his states? The excessive alcoholism, the unusually high rates of suicides and divorces somehow escaped his attention. It is good to quote Vallathol, the poet; but don't let his blood vessels throb with pride for the land of his birth, but let his tears flow for the unemployed, the sick and the frustrated and depressed youths drifting through life without purpose or opportunity! They need more than cricket.

Remember the way Sharad Pawar another cricket enthusiast in the Union cabinet answered anxious questions about price rise in essential commodities? He said he was not an astrologer to predict when the prices would come down. Indifferent to the travails of the common man , but all attention to cricket! This is the mesmerizing effect of the game on greedy politicians like Sharad Pawar.

It is now learnt that L K Modi former IPL chairman floated a bogus company and used it to purchase havelis from a person who fraudulently claimed to be its owner. The land belonged to the government. What a fall for the grandson of a wealthy industrialist of repute! It is becoming more and more clear that he loved cricket for the power and influence which the game imparted to him and enabled him to amass wealth unlimited!

Arrogance and clout:
There are allegations that other Central ministers like Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel too might have profited from their associations with the IPL. It was disclosed recently that the daughter of the aviation minister had the audacity to divert a scheduled flight and turn it into a chartered flight for the IPL team. Such arrogance and clout proceed from the popularity of the game.

It has also become clear that papers relating to many fraudulent deals have disappeared from the offices of the IPL. More skeletons are likely to tumble out of the cricket cupboard!

A club League ticket for one of the cricket matches was priced at Rs 40,000. If I remember correctly, the ticket carried the benefit of sitting close or mingling with such stars as Shah Rukh Khan! What an idea! Sure enough there must be even fans who would be content with keeping company of the great Khan's dog!

The celluloid world and the world of cricket hold great fascination for the youth and even the educated are no exception. There must be something wrong with an education system which promotes worship of glitter and glamour and trivializes values such as hard work, honesty and simplicity. Behind the numerous instances of car thefts and kidnappings and even chain snatchings reported in the media is the craze to make quick bucks. Betting and gambling are also getting a push from the game of cricket.

Stupidity and conceit:
The late Malcolm Muggeridge was pained to note that education, which is expected to equip men and women to live, for the most part 'serves to enlarge stupidity, inflate conceit, enhance credulity and put those subjected to it at the mercy of brain washers with printing presses, radio and television at their disposal.' The resort to drugs, dreams and fantasies and other escapist devises particularly sex becoming more and more marked among the youths must be a cause for concern. The leisurely class' preoccupied with cricket and insensitive to the real issues of life set a poor example for the struggling youth of the country. Commercial interests, advertisers, entertainers and other players develop a vested interest in the game.

It is quite possible that the new chairman might try to undo the wrongs and introduce some reforms in the operation of the IPL. But that would not mean elimination of all the vested interests from the game. They include businessmen, gamblers, astrologers, advertisers, fixers and so on. Promoting this entertainment would mean promoting a vulgar, ostentatious lifestyle. Youths should not be diverted from their serious pursuits to adopt luxuries and amusements which are no solid foundation for a good future.

Cricket matches paralyses office work, keep students glued to television. They come to believe that swinging a ball or bat in style, hitting fours and sixes are the only heroic acts that are worth recording and witnessing in the arena of life. It is equally amusing to note that the players, who make it rich, soon come to feel that they are on top of the world and deserve to be worshipped! It imparts no discipline or team spirit (match fixing and competitive spirit engendered by it speak volumes) like other games, but does a lot to boost egos and vain pretensions. The arrogance of the winning team with unseemly immodesty puts off sensitive souls.

It is about such a topsy-turvy value system Isaiah warned: 'Shame on you! You who call evil good and good evil; who turn darkness into light and light unto darkness; who make bitter sweet and sweet bitter. Shame on you! You who are wise in your own eyes and prudent in your own esteem!' (Isaiah 5: 20)

And for the Christian, who is inclined to view cricket as harmless amusement, here is counsel from St Paul: 'All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.' (1 Corinthians 6: 12)