Skeletons are tumbling out of cricket’s cupboard of inglorious deeds. The International Cricket Council has charged Sanath Jayasuriya and Nuwan Zoysa with activities which may amount to fixing if proven. Considering the stature of the two in international and Sri Lankan cricket, these are worrying signs. The tremor can hit India too, if the Special Bench upholds the appeal of the court-appointed administrators to hand over to the BCCI’s anti-corruption wing nine sealed covers submitted to the apex court by Justice Mukul Mudgal.

These contain names of players/administrators whose actions appeared suspicious to the retired judge, who headed the first probe into the 2013 IPL spot-fixing and betting scandal. Considering that many acclaimed players have served or are serving suspensions of various durations for such crimes in almost all Test-playing nations, these do not appear to be isolated incidents. Police officers identify mushrooming T20 leagues as avenues that breed and nurture such tendencies.

The IPL itself has over a dozen instances involving players, umpires and team officials. Several unauthorised leagues in India have been stopped for running in collaboration with betting syndicates. For administrators of the game, these are shocking disclosures because it is believed that only a fraction of these cases are reported.

The latest revelations from Sri Lanka only confirm that the problem is very much alive. With the BCCI matter under the jurisdiction of the court, fans in India have no choice but to keep their fingers crossed. There is no doubt that at least for a period of time, the administration failed to exercise adequate control over the IPL.

What happened then has not been fully investigated, for reasons ranging from unwillingness to stir a hornet’s nest to insufficient evidence. If a fresh probe is launched into the names in the Mudgal envelopes, nobody knows what will be unearthed. For supporters, organisers or even practitioners of the game, these can be testing times.