The arrest of two persons including a snooker player who represented Goa in the recently-held National Games for their alleged involvement in burglaries and two-wheeler thefts in the state is a startling expose of youngsters who take to a life of crime to purely fund their lavish lifestyle, which in this case also included casino addiction.
A feeling that life is lived in a fast lane has often been the bane of youngsters who enamoured with the lifestyles of the rich and famous turn to a life of crime to satiate their taste for opulence.
For, though crime never pays, it continues to be that only short-cut to quick money. However the consequences of such actions never seem to bother the ever-increasing corps of new entrants who would amaze one with their adroitness at raising all that lolly by indulging in illegal ways.
For them the end, and not the means, seems to matter; where the means have always had a big question mark hanging over their correctness in the given context.
Take the instance of the national-level snooker player! As one who represented the state, he had much to look forward to. Fame and name does not come within a day. It takes years of toil and dedication to reach that stage where people accept you as an embodiment of national or state pride.
Sportspersons who bow out in disgrace due to doping scandals have thus been glaring examples where the nation has been humbled and humiliated by the shameful acts of a unscrupulous few who had no qualms about resorting to unethical ways to gain sporting prominence.
Here we are talking of heroes who turn villains overnight due to their insincere ways at cornering glory.
But the notion of a sportsman resorting to a life of crime to fund his expensive tastes does not conform to the image of a competitor vying for sporting honours for the state and the country.
There have been ample instances of sporting stars getting into the wrong side of the law due to their fiery temperament.
Regarded as possibly one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time, Mike Tyson was convicted of rape and sentenced to a term in prison. However, it is the rematch with Evander Holyfield on June 28, 1997, renamed the ‘Bite Fight’, which is one of the most shameful chapters in international boxing history.
‘The Sportster’ recorded some 20 athletes that brought shame to their sport in an article.
“Whether it’s the scourge of performance enhancing drugs, organizing illegal deals away from the spotlight or biting an opponent in the heat of battle, these athletes only realize the error of their ways in the groggy aftermath. Then again, sometimes their narcissism is so bad they don’t actually feel the shame at all.”
“Athletes who bring shame to their sport undermine all of the effort and honesty that fellow competitors exude. Whether it is soccer, boxing, cycling or football, every sport has its identity carved out from what the best and worst people demonstrate, leaving a legacy that etches in the minds.”
Diego Maradona’s tax evasion and doping scandals and Tiger Woods and his inglorious ‘affairs’; well, it is a long list of sporting greats who brought eternal infamy to their respective game.
A cricket-crazy nation would not be oblivious to the fact that match-fixing, spot fixing, ball tampering and a spate of such other scandals have corrupted the game for years now.
But worse has been the scenario where the concept of sports criminalization has found much favour with ‘entrepreneurs’ who have managed to build a thriving enterprise out of a seemingly leisure activity which is supposed to promote competitive spirit among participants.
“Manipulation of sport competitions means an intentional arrangement, act or omission aimed at an improper alteration of the result or the course of a sport competition in order to remove all or part of the unpredictable nature of the aforementioned sport competition with a view to obtaining an undue advantage for oneself or for others.” (As defined by the Macolin Convention)
While games and sports are meant to decrease the crime rate from society in a positive way, there is growing evidence that sport is corrupted by illegal activities that jeopardize the integrity of the competitions.
Organized crime and sport is a subject that has been widely deliberated upon. In a recent global report on corruption in sport, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) states that “In our increasingly globalized world, sport is exposed to complex risks posed by corrupt actors who seek to exploit it for illicit gain.”
It is said that sport plays a vital role in promoting healthy lifestyles. But, as in the case of the player who represented Goa in the National Games in snooker, a fad for pursuing a pseudo-lifestyle landed him in big trouble.
However, the commissioning of crimes to support a style of living that hints at lavishness just cannot find justification in any moral code laid down by the society.
The police maintain that the accused had developed a habit of gambling and the series of break-ins and bike thefts were seen as a means to sustain the costly passion.
The relationship of pathological gambling to criminality behaviour has been dealt at length and emphasises the fact that ‘compulsive gambling’, like other addictions, encompasses behaviours subjugated to the achievements of short-lived gains, regardless of their long-term negative influence on the life of the addicted person. (Medical Science Monitor).
There is no such thing as a natural-born gambler. These are habits picked up along the way which subsequently turn into addictions like any other vice. Much depends on the company one keeps.
As one develops dependence on these compulsions, it is ‘maintaining’ the obsessions however which proves costly later. In his quest to get ‘funds’ to fuel his passion, the addict is already a seasoned criminal even before he knows it.
