Caught Out: Crime. Corruption. Cricket

Its a kind of story when BCCI was still a startup, but a very very successful one and not the giant corporation it used to be now. The startup had little rules and things go by the whims and fancies of management / captains.

Its a gutsy move to investigate and actually bring such names to light. The gambling mechanism is creative. Buy the documentary makers just want to make it sensational by putting in names like Kapil Dev and Dawood Ibrahim, with only little story and just adding publicly available footage.

The Tehelka operation is also not to find the truth but to just sensationalize it...

Caught Out: Crime. Corruption. Cricket.

This documentary shows links of some former Indian cricketers with bookies for fixing matches which involve names of Muhammad Azharuddin and Kapil Dev and Ajay Sharma etc. It is not possible that a cricketer who apparently has a good reputation and respect in sight of the public may not be involved in match fixing and anything like that. It may be totally possible at any point of his career.

But BCCI finally after years, declared these players either innocent even when there has been evidence found against them. Muhammad Azharuddin and Kapil Dev were declared clean. But Ajay Sharma and Manoj Prabhakar faced a ban.

No doubt, match fixing is a very dirty thing. Because the whole nation is looking forward to players and they have their sentiments attached to them. Any such thing can really really disappoint the general public.

They say since 2012, there has always been an anti corruption team with the cricket team so they may not be involved in fixing. God knows the rest. But watching a match doesn't make sense if it's fixed.

The spontaneity and unpredictability is the beauty of cricket, and any other game in fact.

Netflix destroyed a good plot. I mean this documentary is more focused on azhar than the complete scam. Not a single word or clip is used for Ajay Jadeja, Kishan Kumar, Five south African cricketers including Harshell Gibbs and several others. The incident of so called bribe offered by Kapil dev to Manoj prabhakar was in Colombo in Singer cup in 1994 and according to Prabhakar, Sidhu was eye witness of that incident. In Tehelka tapes, sidhu didn't rejected manoj allegations. Well, I like to say most of the cricket lovers of that time have more information as compared to this documentary. So, Nothing new in this documentary but with lot of cuts in real incidents.

Pretty good intro to the cricket betting scandal of 2000. I knew absolutely nothing about this and this doc is a great small intro to the people involved and the corruption. They focus on India mostly and their giant stars getting caughts betting on their own matches then throwing international games. Of course there are bookies involved and an Indian gang and huge mob boss controlling this all internationally. Bookies seek out lower ranked players and give them a bit money over the years then at some point ask them to lose a match on purpose. They will give them alcohol, women, money. Once they have dirt on them they ask them to bring big players to them. This doc shows how one retired player started talking about bribes on his matches in the media, likely to make a name for himself and become a hero in the media. Soon a cricket org is set up in India to look into this. They look into all criminal bookies in India. But only after South Africa find out their legendary players took bribes and those players get banned, sued, and drop names does India get anywhere. One criminal bookie is mentioned in South Africa. He confesses it all to the Indian org. A legendary Indian player then confesses too as he sees they have everything on him even who bought his sim card and where he shopped in UK. Apparently a bookie pays for it all.

But fixing matches is not a crime in India. All the players who were banned countersue and after their careers are long over they are unbanned. The bookies also go free. Sport orgs can ban players if they see fit, but it has to be a clear rule break and India seems to protect rich people and legendary players. In South Africa and other countries players seemed to be fully punished.

The episode topic is good with great interviews. It's way too dark though. Many settings are dark rooms with nothing in the background and are dull as heck. They also use a flashy doc style instead of letting the drama be the center focus. I liked everything Indian here and disliked everything flashy and Americanized. The doc is lazily made and ugly as heck. But the topic and interviews are very cool. And the Indian culture is amazing on screen.