The spot-fixing scandal might have left the IPL’s reputation in shreds and severely dented his own team’s image but Rajasthan Royals skipper Rahul Dravid said no good can come out of banning the Twenty20 league altogether as there are a “lot of positives about it“.
“You’ve to deal with the challenges. If you completely throw away the tournament, it’s like throwing away the baby with the bath water,” Dravid said after RR’s ouster from the IPL following a four-wicket loss to Mumbai Indians in the second qualifier last night.
“We need to sort the issue out rather than make big statements like cancel the IPL. Because there’re some real good positives that have come out of it.”
The former India skipper, who retired after 16 years of International cricket, further said the menace of fixing has been there in the past as well.
“We don’t stop International cricket because of that. If that yardstick was used, we should stop all Cricket. It’s a question of correcting some of the challenges. An issue of betting is not only about the IPL. We have seen in the past that the issue has been there in International cricket,” Dravid said.
“The cricket is great. There is no doubt about it. I’ve always said the IPL is a fantastic tournament. There are a lot of positives about it. But there are challenges in the IPL as well as we’ve seen in the last week or 10 days. Not only this, there are other challenges that come up from time to time and that need to be dealt with.
“Truth always sets you free. I really hope that in anything you just get to the truth and get to the bottom of it. Whatever and however painful maybe.”
The spot-fixing scam came to surface after the arrest of Royals trio of S Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila and it opened a can of worms.
Dravid said IPL was a “unique” experience for him but he hoped cricket will come out winners tomorrow.