Pulsating cricket and fixated cynics

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold=""><script language="javascript">var server = '203.197.64.235'; var sitepage = "www.timesofindia.com/india/index.html"; var position ="Bottom1"; if (! 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A few overs earlier, an infuriated Ganguly gave Lanka’s Upul Chandana an earful for taking a second run off a deflection: a breach of the game’s unwritten ethics. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Back home, a cricket crazy audience soaked in the drama on millions of TV sets. Hearts thudded with every step of Zaheer’s in his climactic last over. Pulses raced when Virender Sehwag accounted for a tired Sanath Jayasurya. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Could all this be part of a carefully written script, micro-managed to the last despairing dive? </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">The game at Premadasa was as taut as an ODI can be. But even before the match got underway, wags in offices and elsewhere were smirking: India was going to win. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Why? </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Oh, it’s all fixed. Is that so? Of course! Murali and Vaas are not playing and Lanka don’t want to face Pakistan in the final. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">The evidence is non-existent, the logic is weak — why should Lanka want to take on India’s fabled batting line-up instead of Pakistan, for instance? </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">Fixing of matches: All in the mind </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">NEW DELHI:</span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:=""> It’s either a sign of the cynical times we live in or just idle chatter, the talk of matches being fixed is threatening to steal the shine of valiant victories. Nothing, it seems, is what it appears to be. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">The reality check delivered by India reaching a gettable 271 was happily ignored. As soon as the Lankan score read 76 for 3, the knowing winks, nods and nudges were being exchanged. Sri Lanka, as expected, was going to collapse like a house of cards. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Never mind that Jayasurya was looking ominous. Never mind they took the team to the brink of a win. As far the unbelieving know-alls were concerned, it was all pre-ordained. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">So, what of the finals? </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Whether it is low self-esteem or a collective instinct for self-flagellation (that breeds belief in match-fixing) it is a matter for social scientists to ponder. </span></div> </div>