We have a long-term plan to curb corruption: Jitendra

He did not go into the details of it but Sports Minister Jitendra Singh today said he has a "long-term plan" to curb corruption in cricket after the game was thrown into disarray by the IPL spot-fixing scandal.

Speaking at the conference of Ministers and Secretaries of States/UTs in-charge of sports and youth affairs, Jitendra said transparency was the key to preventing corruption whether in cricket or any other game.

"We are talking about ways to bring about transparency in all sports. We have a long-term plan and we will use this opportunity with the Ministers as well as the Secretaries of States to work out some sort of plan to try and curb this menace," Jitendra said.

Indian cricket was shaken to the core after Test pacer S Sreesanth and two other players were arrested for spot-fixing in the IPL.

The scandal is now knocking the doors of BCCI President N Srinivasan, whose son-in-law and Chennai Super Kings CEO Gurunath Meiyappan has been summoned for questioning by the Mumbai Police.

Asked if Srinivasan should resign taking moral responsibility, Jitendra said, "These are all moral issues that they have to think about themselves. My Ministry has no control over BCCI or IPL but we need to think about the bigger picture."

"Rather than pointing fingers at individuals we need to think of a long-term plan," he added.

On whether betting should be legalised to prevent corruption, the Minister said, "As per the Constitution, this comes under the state list and that is the reason why I want to speak to the state ministers and secretaries and the Law Ministry.
"We have to take all these stakeholders into consideration but we will all do it together," he added.

Jitendra once again emphasised on the need for a solution-seeking approach to the problem.

"We are all ashamed, we are all worried and it is not just me, the players and the citizens of this country are ashamed. Hence, we will have to try and figure out a solution together," he said.