Mumbai, Jun 3: Former India skipper Krishnamachari Srikkanth, who is one among the 13 contestants on the sixth season of TV dance reality show ‘Jhalak Dikhla Jaa', is deeply saddened by the IPL spot fixing scandal and hopes that the mess will be sorted out soon.
“I am sad, hurt and shocked. Everybody loves and is passionate about cricket. It is very unfortunate that because of a few cricketers who did this stupid mistake, the whole thing turned out to be so sad,” Srikkanth told PTI.
The Special Cell of Delhi Police had arrested Sreesanth, his Rajasthan Royals teammates - Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan - on May 15 for allegedly indulging in spot-fixing in atleast three IPL matches held this season.
Later, Bollywood actor Vindoo Randhawa, son of late wrestler-actor Dara Singh, was arrested in connection with the IPL spot-fixing scandal followed by CSK's team principal Gurunath Meiyappan, former players and several bookies.
But the ex-chief selector is happy that the police and even the BCCI are conducting a probe into the scandal.
“Once all these things (investigations) are done then the mess will be cleaned up. At the end of the day we cricketers are here because of public and thanks to them that we are famous and make money. All the cricketers are fair except a handful of them. Cricket will come back to normalcy on its own because of the corrective measures taken,” he said.
Considering cricket is considered as a religion in India, Srikkanth feels one cannot disrespect it.
“I am a firm believer of truth. I believe in ‘Satyameva Jayate' and truth will always prevail. I hope things will get sorted out at the earliest,” he added.
When asked if betting should be legalised, Srikkanth said, “I don't want to go deep into this aspect. I played cricket for the passion of the game. I think 99 per cent of the cricketers sacrifice a lot of things - their life, family and studies - they just want to play for India.”
“Everyone's dream is to play for India and be the captain and nobody is looking at other aspects of cricket. I believe cricket is bigger than any individual or body,” he said.
On the clamour for the ouster of BCCI chief N Srinivasan, after his son-in-law Meiyappan was caught for his alleged involvement in betting, Srikkanth said, “we would like to wait and watch... I don't want to indulge in any speculation at this stage.”
Yesterday, Srinivasan agreed to ‘step aside' at the emergent working committee meeting of the BCCI in Chennai and left the day-to-day running of the Board in the hands of his predecessor Jagmohan Dalmiya till the BCCI probe into the scandal is completed.
Srikkanth was happy with the performance of new IPL team Sunrisers Hyderabad, of which he was the mentor.
“They were fantastic... we are happy that we reached in the top four especially when no one expected us to reach this far. Ultimately, its about team spirit and team effort. We had a good bowling unit and had good players in batting as well,” he said.
The cricketer does feel the itch to play the T20 format of the game.
“This kind of cricket was suitable for my kind of frame. I feel Vivian Richards, Kapil Dev... these kinds of cricketers would have been ideal for this kind of cricket. But you have to accept the current time... you cannot say I wish I was there. I am sure 20 years down the line cricket will be different. So you have to accept the change and move on,” he said.
Srikkanth will feature on the dance show alongside 12 other contestants including model-actor Aarti Chhabria, international dancer and ‘ABCD' famed Lauren Gottlieb, TV actors Shweta Tiwari, Karanvir Bohra, Meghna Malik, Siddharth Shukla, singer Shaan and comedian Suresh Menon.
Filmmaker Karan Johar, actress Madhuri Dixit and choreographer-director Remo D'Souza are judging the show.
Earlier too, JDJ had witnessed several sport personalities including former Sri Lankan skipper Sanath Jayasuriya, boxer Akhil Kumar, former Indian cricketer Mohinder Amarnath, football player Baichung Bhutia and former Indian cricketer Ajay Jadeja, testing their dance skills.
