'Caught Out': Fours, six but is it a fix?

Do not drop ithellip cricket grounds resonate to this phrase as players urge their teammates to pouch that catch but this one has lsquodroppedrsquo for all the right reasons The documentary lsquoCaught Out Crime Corruption Cricketrsquo is dropping on the OTT platform Netflix todayThe 77minute film on match fixing the biggest scandal in cricket is set in the 1990s the age after which cricket lost its innocence Supriya Sobti Gupta who makes a directorial debut with this prickly subject the preview of which was held on Wednesday evening looks at the lens through journalists and the scribe especially who first blew the lid off match fixingDownfall Hansie CronjeThe outsiderAniruddha Bahal from the news magazine Tehelka who describes himself in the film as the lsquosports journalist by accidentrsquo broke the story Bahalrsquos perspective was that he was not a traditional sports journalist and it took an outsider one with lsquofresh eyesrsquo to latch on to the match fixing scent like a bloodhound on a trail His journalistic lsquonosersquo started twitching the man who was not part of the inner boys cricket writing club knew he was on to a lsquostoryrsquo that could upend cricket itself and was not intimidated to go after itThe fanJournalist Sharda Ugrarsquos statement in the film that lsquosport is meant to be unscripted if it is scripted it takes away everything that sport stands forrsquo illustrates why this is the unkindest cut of all it goes deep and actually rips the heart out of the lifeblood of the game which is the believing adoring fanOn the trail Aniruddha BahalVoices vicesAnother standout is shots of the tapes that investigators run hearing the voice of the player and the bookie the sums of money exchanged are chilling There is none of that background music to lsquoenhancersquo the effects of the disclosure in the background it is stark but that makes the greed stand out in sharp reliefThe action begins after former cricketer Manoj Prabhakar prominent because he blew the whistle comes out with the revelation that there was something rotten in the state of cricketSleuth truthCaught Out is that kind of film moving between the press fan reactions interrogations and international exposures like that of Hansie Cronjersquos The match fixing canvas was wide the documentary does not portray every aspect or every player Despite Caught Out closing citing that the court that had given a clean chit to several players it is the sleuths who seem more believable those who are firm that some players were guilty despite that clean chitAlso ReadCaught Out Web Review Indian matchmaking of another typeTrust deficitThe film did well to show that once you were lsquoinrsquo with the bookies once you lsquosuccumbedrsquo to temptation there was no way out so insidious is that web The film could have emphasized more on larger ramifications of matchfixing the dark stain that refuses to wash off even today and the trust deficit that will never be breached It was hugely unfair to cricket players as it puts a question mark on several matches even now Overall though it is a showcase that the pantheon had been breached the lsquoGodsrsquo of cricket had fallen and reminded one of the lineslsquoErsquoen grave divines submit to glittering gold The best of consciences are bought and soldrsquo