Rigging Cricket Matches

When I was in Allahabad there used to be annually on every 26th January ( Republic Day ) a cricket match between the Allahabad High Court Bench and the Bar ( I do not know whether the practice is still followed ). As long as I was a lawyer I often captained the Bar team.

Before the match I would call my team mates and tell them " Look here chaps, you know which side your bread is buttered. So for heavens sake don't get any stupid ideas and win the match, otherwise from tomorrow all your cases will be dismissed. These Judges are a miserable lot, as they are all hen pecked at home. So give them a moment of happiness, and let them win, and from tomorrow you will get a lot of stay orders and bail orders ."

I would then explain the strategy. When the Judges were batting, drop the catches, do not try to run them out, fix the umpire so that he does not give any lbw decisions, etc. When the lawyers were batting, they should give easy catches, swing the bat wildly so that it does not connect with the bat and the batsman is bowled, etc

In this way, the Judges team always won.

When I became a Judge, my heart was still with the lawyers. So I would call the captain of the lawyers team and tell him to advise his team mates to follow the above strategy if they knew what was good for them. Again the Judges team would win.

In this way the Judges team always won, and the Judges were happy. Judges are notoriously hen pecked at home, so they got some relief when in Court the lawyers, instead of arguing on the merits of the case, would tell them of their brilliant performance on the cricket field the previous day ! This made it easy for the lawyers to get favourable interim orders.