Corruption In Indian Sports System

Sport is a big phenomenon of today, it is very important part of today life. However, sport is rather contradictory phenomenon. It is connected with big humanistic values and it formats life and values of billions of people on the one side. It is also connected with dirty business, doping, corruption and violence on the other side. Corruption in sport should be matter of concern not of pessimism. To start with the definition of corruption the effects of corruption emerge from the very term. The root of corruption is very thought to be Latin ‘Corruptus’ (Bosman 2012) The state of being rotten , decayed, transferrable to the morally unsound state of being degenerate. This fits well with the case of Socrates who was accused of corrupting the minds of youth of Athens. Transparency International (2013) prefers a general definition as abuse of power for private gain. The challenge of corruption is growing higher and higher and sometimes the question may arises of good governance in sports and is there a universal concept of governance that can be applied to various international sport organization. People are connected with corruption in many ways. For example, two popular sources ESPN and associated press say that the presidents of the American boxing federation and the French ski federation took bribes from sponsors (Graham 1999). Football scandals in Brazil, China, and Germany are such a evidence is that problem is real and global, this opens the way for action of international organization like FIFA & IOC to launch a systematic enforcement of zero tolerance policy on corruption.

Corruption in Sports on a Global Stage

Recently, sport management scholars have joined academic conversations about corruption. An emerging body of literature has focused mainly on examining specific types of corruption example doping, match fixing, academic fraud, and illegal gambling etc. The International Olympic committee which is considered to be the supreme governing body of sports and also promoting ethical ideals of olympism through the Olympic movement have came under the radar several number of times which tends to shift the focus and challenge the reason of their existence. For example the “Salt Lake City scandal at the end of the 20th century raised eyebrows and brought IOC under the scrutiny as result of which several representatives resigned within six years or were expelled” (S.Robinson and J. Parry 2018). The above cited example damaged the credibility of the organization and fundamental principles written in the Olympic charter (IOC 2015a) ‘The IOC response to its bribery scandal was an effective approach to managing reputational risk: Apologize, Investigate, Punish, Reflect and Reform” (Jennings, 2015) one of the same attempt to defend the reputation is corruption case of 2015 when the FIFA came under the global scrutiny. Where Fourteen people were indicted in connection with an investigation by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and by December 2015 several other member and former officials who were involved in corruption scandal of worth over $200m since then FIFA has taken no further steps to improve its integrity and reputation like IOC did in the above case mentioned as Pielke (2013) argues that the’ narratives involved in FIFA are so diverse that it is not easy to see how accountability can be fully developed’ some scholars define this as a case of Teleopathy which Goodpaster (2007) ‘occurs when an organization begins to focus on divergent purposes leading to loss of touch of reality and breakdown of organization’.

Corruption in Sports in India

India has captured world imagination with its dazzling economic growth rise in international affairs. According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2010, India ranks a dismal 87 out of 188 countries, falling three notches since 2009. It continues to plummet further, affecting all aspects of government functioning and public life, and sport is no exception.

Corruption is no stranger to India and its culmination in scale and magnitude subjected the government and ministry of sport to global shame, The budget of commonwealth was allocated to $400m in 2003 and in the reports the government end up spending 18 times more which could have easily fostered 3 Olympic games. Sometimes its very disturbing to find the level of corruption at such magnitude in country whose 80% population according world bank report (2005) lives under $2 meal a day. Several trillion dollars of unaccounted for money remains locked in Swiss banks which the Indian government is finding hard to retrieve. Post-Games, the first major action taken by the Government was to demand the resignation of two top officials, the Organizing Committee Chairman, Suresh Kalmadi, and Secretary General, Lalit Bhanot. Both Kalmadi and Bhanot have since been arrested, and are being interrogated by the investigation agencies. Today corruption has plagued almost every sport ranging from Cricket, Hockey, Athletics and among other sports. The first major sporting scandal was reported in the year 1990 involving match fixing by Indian cricketers namely Ajay jadeja, & former Indian skipper Md. Azharuddin. Later on when the scandal unfolded several international demi cricketing gods like Shane Warne (Aus), Brian Lara (WI) Martin Crowe ( NZL) were also involved.

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The board of cricket control India ( BCCI) banned the player for life which send a strong message, it should be noted however BCCI own record over the years has been a bit worrying and has impeded its authority to be more stringent on their policy on corruption. Well that’s was one of the incidents quoted but in recent years the face or corruption have new avatar in form of $4 billion Indian premier league (IPL) its former commissioner Lalit Modi resigned and flee to London facing corruption charges over financial irregularities The 2010 IPL franchise bidding process also led to the resignation of Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for External Affairs, whose friend and current wife, was alleged to have received $15 million in ‘sweat equity’ from one of the franchises. In June 2010, Appalled by the commonwealth games corruption scandal former Indian Olympians launched the group of clean sports India to raise public awareness and fight corruption in sports. In just a short span of time the group has enlarged its base and campaigned hard to oppose politicians with no sports background from entering and contesting for executive positions in sport bodies. Recently the group has persuaded a minister for defense ministry and was successful in withdrawing his application for the post of president of equestrian federation of India, however in a similar scenario the president of clean Sport India and a former hockey skipper & Olympian has lost to a 83 old veteran minister from congress politician In the election of hockey India.

The state of Indian hockey is in complete deplorable condition once used to be world champions now find it difficult to win Asian tournaments. The current president of hockey India, Mr. K.P.S. Gill a former Indian police officer has been officiating for many years and his ruling style has divided the organization into different parts which ultimately affects teams performance. The 2010 women’s Hockey World cup was again hit by series of scandals involving both Hockey India and Indian Olympic association, The IOA chief Suresh Kalmadi again said to have involved in making arrangements for bribery in 2008. On the policy front, in 2011, the Indian Government has proposed a National Sports Bill to curb corruption and ensure that all sport federations comply with the Olympics Charter by subjecting their offices to annual audits. The Bill provides for a Sports Ombudsman to resolve disputes in sports, prevent age and sex fraud and doping, and to make all sports bodies comply with the Right to Information Act, 2005. The synopsis of 2010 commonwealth games can be done in terms of lack of suitable legislation for organization of mega sport events in contrast to other international models like Melbourne commonwealth games or Glasgow games in 2014, these models reflects appropriate legislations to regulate functioning of organizing committees and judicious dealing with key issues such as transport, ticketing, land acquisition, broadcasting and licensing rights. While that’s not enough corruption has taken in form that is from laundering money in purchasing sub standard equipment or DA not given to athletes. For example if we look in the case of Indian kayaking & canoeing association (IKCA) organized a canoe sprint level 2 course for young athletes and coaches which dates back to December 2015, the course was covered by foreign expert from Hungary and was sponsored by solidarity programme of the IOC to Indian Olympic Association, later was found the director of operation of the federation has been trying to mend the dates of course so as to take the money of solidarity programme provided to athletes, coaches and other participants went in to his pockets. Corruption is everywhere in form of individual of organizational corruption.

Integrity and its relation with Corruption

Quoting Howard Curzer ‘Integrity is character trait in individual which refer simply being genuine rather than phony’ it all about representing oneself accurately to others. The concept of integrity is further conceptualized into three parts. Personal integrity in which individual sportspersons rather they be coaches, athletes, sport administrator takes responsibility in representing their actions, behaviors. Organizational Integrity focus on the concept of sustaining the reputation and representing the values of the organization as a whole and moves forward to their commitment this includes personal integrity as well. The third would be Procedural Integrity which focus on the concept of logic and ethical values of sport, this is much of a broader concept and include both personal and organizational integrity. While (C.F .Bauman. 2013)Argues that these concept are both interrelated while other view it as just as moral concept Gardiner, Parry, and Robinson (2017) argues that integrity is an under-theorized concept within what he terms the ‘sports integrity industry’ – the various organizations fighting corruption in sport. Sport managers should therefore be aware of the broader discussions concerning integrity to further develop the sport industry’s understanding of the meaning of integrity so as to aptly think about the practice of integrity, its relationship to corruption, and effective sport governance (A. Kihl J. Skinner and T. Engelberg. 2016). There are certain factors which can promote sporting integrity first is leadership organization or individuals should set the tone from the very top of the organization, second is strategy providing a coherent direction of organizational moral & motivation and channelize the same into goals, third communication which should articulate organization commitment to integrity in practice.

Conclusion

While concluding we can say that corruption has become a significant issue for sport and its many stakeholders. The commercial growth of sport has raised community concern about the seriousness of corruption and the unsatisfactory way it is often handled by sport administrators. As the amount the sport industry has seen globalization in recent years as the economic and social consequences of corruption are becoming more pronounced there is a high need to address this issue if not then it will lead to public desensitization (Chien, Kelly, & Weeks,2016) of corrupt practices and a growing cynicism about the place of sport in society. Keeping the above arguments in mind we have seen that integrity is somehow related to corruption which we see a genuine representation of individual, organization as whole. Also corruption cannot be tackled putting in large system ‘ If corruption is the breakdown of integrity of sport a systematic response is second to the practice of integrity and the practice has to involve all parties taking responsibility for meaning, practice and relationship in sport’. (S. Robinson & J. Parry 2016)