Luke feigns while his team owners questions the integrity of the victim

IPL Version 5 was peaking – it was all action with so many tight last ball finishes – now when the first phase is about to conclude – problems have begun to rock.  First there was the scandal of ‘match fixing’ and suspension of 5 little known players, then the cine actor Shahrukh Khan’s drunken brawl and now sexual assault charges on a Cricketer.

Australian cricketer Luke Pomersbach, arrested on charges of molesting an American woman in a hotel yesterday night [17.5.12] was  granted interim bail for a day by a Delhi court.  As we have seen in many cinemas, the Aussie came with arms draped heavily reporting a fractured arm, feigned in the Court and to peak it all, his  lawyer said the cricketer had been invited up to the couple's room to continue celebrating after the match and that the altercation was a "problem of language".  Believe him, Pomersbach, an Aussie did not understand English, the language spoken by the reported victim, who herself is not an Indian.    The lawyer further elaborated that the 27-year-old had also accepted an invitation to enter the bedroom but had no intention of committing any offence.

The IPL Chief Rajiv Shukla speaking to TV said that it was not a personal affair and IPL was not concerned.  What a statement ? – somebody involved in a criminal case and arrested by Police – but to IPL, it is no offence and they are not concerned at all.  More drama was to unfold during the 30-minute proceedings, when the 27-year-old batsman,  complained of uneasiness and fainted while the victim broke down when she narrated the incident.

Policemen took him outside the court room and gave him water after which he regained composure to come back to the court room made stuffy by the crowd of lawyers, journalists and onlookers.  The Magistrate Navita Kumari Bagha  directed the Delhi Police to bring the CCTV footage from the hotel on Saturday along with the medical records showing the nature of injury caused to the woman's fiance Sahil, who is admitted in ICU in a private hospital in New Delhi after being allegedly beaten by Pomersbach.  Questioning the integrity of a woman is the most sleazy thing and Royal Challengers Bangalore owner Siddharth Mallya attacked her in a tweet.    He went on and  accused her of talking nonsense and went on to say "she was all over me last night and asked for my bbm (BlackBerry messenger) pin".  Later Siddharth defended his tweet but said that he was not questioning her character but merely stating a fact.  Team mentor Anil Kumble said the franchise was planning an internal inquiry into the incident.

The incident should be investigated threadbare and when found guilty, Luke and his supporters should be punished very severely

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.