Open up, ICC!

Cricket's chamber of shockers continues to be notorious. The edifice is in poor shape and chances are that it will soon collapse right before the eyes of innocent pedestrians.

Yesterday, the electronic media boasted of having proof of conversations between Gurunath Meiyappan, the son-in-law of Indian cricket board president N Srinivasan, and Vindu Dara Singh, who are in police custody, saying that he was warned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) about staying away from bookies before the last edition of the IPL. Reportedly, ICC had informed the BCCI about their warning to Meiyappan.

While the BCCI was quick to deny any such communication from the ICC with regards to Meiyappan, the Dubai-headquartered ICC has neither confirmed or denied and used their standard line: "We don't comment on the anti-corruption unit's activities."

The cricketing world is tired of listening to policy and procedure. The average cricket lover is looking for answers and want their best-loved noble game free of blemish. The least the ICC could do is to confirm or deny. As it is the anti-corruption units of the BCCI and ICC haven't unearthed anything which was there to expose in this country. And the experts are probably right in believing that the media and Delhi police have performed tasks which they -- the corruption tackling experts -- ought to have performed.

The ICC cannot play mute spectator while the dirt is flying around in India. It is time to be proactive and display their full array of balls to knock down the stumps of corruption.

The BCCI and ICC do not enjoy a healthy relationship and that can be understandable in the power of game. But spot-fixing does not come into the ambit of politicking and one-upmanship. True transparency has never been so essential, so basic, so fundamental.u00a0