New Delhi, May 20: Former cricketer Kirti Azad today sat on a hunger strike, lambasting the “greed, lust for money and sleaze” in the IPL and demanded transparency in the cash-rich league's functioning.
Azad said the IPL has unfolded like the script of a Bollywood movie, where the latest series of incidents have only added more drama to the T20 league.
Spot-fixing by five uncapped domestic cricketers, Bollywood star and Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner Shah Rukh Khan's spat with the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) officials and molestation charges against Royal Challengers Bangalore player Luke Pomersbach hit the IPL last week as the tournament reached the last stage of league fixtures.
“The incidents that have taken place in the past few days, as a cricketer and an avid lover of the game, I feel ashamed of myself. My fight is not against any individual but against the system and the various ills plaguing the IPL,” said Azad, who sat on a hunger strike outside the Feroz Shah Kotla ground here.
“Since the league is popular among the people, there should be accountability, discipline and transparency in its functioning, especially since there were allegations of molestation by an American woman against a foreign player, a sting operation by India TV showing the involvement of domestic players in spot-fixing and the source of money that fuels the IPL.
“IPL is like cinema where you'll find everything—hero, heroine, villain, vamp, black-money, action, molestation, rape, match-fixing. Greed, lust for money, sleaze has taken over cricket and that is the one thing I am fighting against,” said Azad, who is also a BJP leader.
While addressing the gathering, Azad demanded that the BCCI should come under the RTI
