Why did Sreesanth cheat?

If the title of the blogpost gives you the impression that what follows is an investigational account of the nexus among bookies, players, politicians etc., then you are bound to be disappointed. So, in order to set the context, let me outline what this post is all about. This post captures my understanding of what behavioral economists have to say about “cheating”. The learnings are mainly from an online course from Dan Ariely (Duke University) titled “A Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behavior”. So, let’s begin the journey of analyzing Sreesanth’s fall from grace. 

How to clean the IPL mess?

A lot is being said about IPL nowadays so I thought why not join the bandwagon. After all, IPL which was supposed to be a mix of cricket and glamour, has instead become a topic taking black money, conflict of interests, match fixing, abuse, molestations too into its fold.

As is the case (discussed in one my earliest post as well) that those who run the IPL i.e. organizers (IPL committee), the regulators (read BCCI but don’t ask me if they are too different from the IPL committee) and the sponsors (including the advertisers, broadcasters and team owners) are too intertwined and thus this combination has become just “Too big to fail”.

Why will the 50-overs format be soon over?

Which are the most awaited series in cricket nowadays? Some may say Ashes, some may rate Border-Gavaskar trophy as their favourite or some may even find Aus-SA test match rivalry exhilarating. Well if I ask you to limit yourself to the “limited overs” format, IPL might be the one to go for. Some cricket enthusiast might even include Champions league T20 (though I won’t). Now let’s qualify it even further. How many 50 over series or tournaments are on your radar? You might vote for Champions trophy. Can you come up with a few more? Seems tough, isn’t it?

Now it’s the turn of the players to pick their favourites. You will find the Aussies and the Poms engrossed with the Ashes or the Indian team bragging about their No.1 tag. The Proteas consider winning Test series in Australia as their biggest cricketing achievement. Come IPL and you would find players braving injuries to showcase their talents. In fact it has even affected their commitments to their national teams.