New Delhi: Former India cricket captain Rahul Dravid today said that he was in favour of legalising betting in the country if such a step can help reduce corruption in sports. Asked if he was in favour of legalising betting in the country, Dravid said, "If it can help in reducing corruption, I am all for it."
Dravid was speaking at a special session on 'Ethics and Integrity in Sports' organised by CBI here. He pointed out four integrity issues in Indian sport that require legal intervention. "While the subject matter of sports integrity is very vast in its scope, I would like to focus the attention of legislators and policy makers in our midst to matters that I believe require immediate attention.
"There are four integrity issues in Indian sport that require legal intervention, which are, age fraud, doping, deliberate under-performance and player involvement in the betting industry," said the former skipper.
Dravid also said that the culprits must be made to serve jail sentences in order to instill fear in others. "Unless you have jail sentences for culprits and people see consequences of their action, nothing will happen," Dravid, who was the captain of Rajasthan Royals team whose three players, including S Sreesanth, were arrested for their alleged role in IPL VI spot-fixing scandal.
Asked if he was in favour of legalising betting in the country, Dravid said, "If it can help in reducing corruption, I am all for it."
Dravid pointed out four integrity issues in Indian sport that require legal intervention. "While the subject matter of sports integrity is very vast in its scope, I would like to focus the attention of legislators and policy makers in our midst to matters that I believe require immediate attention.
"There are four integrity issues in Indian sport that require legal intervention, which are, age fraud, doping, deliberate under-performance and player involvement in the betting industry," said the former skipper.
He said that these issues needed to be addressed on an urgent basis. "Failure to address these challenges not only risks a serious threat to all-round confidence in sport, but will also enable entrenchment of new norms in sub-culture of sport -- norms that we will eventually have to fight even harder to change.
Take the example of cycling, where no cyclist believed they stood a genuine chance unless they doped. "If we are to tackle the challenge head on, the urgent need is to break the nexus between organised crime and sports cheating, to incorporate advanced investigative and forensic techniques and to have genuine and meaningful punishments under the general law for everyone involved and complicit.
"Therefore, I believe that it is now time for legal reform and the turn of national and state legislators and the criminal law administration to intervene definitively." He also said that the investigations must be "speedy and precise".
"Investigations must be speedy and precise, independent and unbiased, making the various available temptations unattractive for potential offenders right down the chain of corruption," he said.
