Innocent till proved guilty is a principle of British jurisprudence which has been made part of the Indian legal system. Accordingly, all those Indian cricketers who are suspected of being involved in matchfixing, bribery and amassing undeclared wealth are innocent till proved otherwise. Thus the income tax raids carried out in the houses and offices of some prominent players and the former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India mean and prove nothing. But the issue, so far the players are concerned, transcends legal niceties. The very fact that important cricketers are suspected of having undeclared assets and that their activities have drawn the attention of the Central Bureau of Investigation are suggestive of the way cricketers live, the lifestyles they adopt and the money they can earn. In short, they indicate the extent to which cricket has changed in the last two decades or so. No cricketer of the Sixties or the Seventies, in his worst nightmare, would have thought of a visit by the income tax officials to his residence. He just did not earn enough. Tiger Pataudi has the marvellous story of how he and his team in the late Sixties were offered Rs 100 as a special bonus from the BCCI. The greatest cricketer ever, Garfield Sobers, in his entire playing career probably did not earn a fraction of what a player with less than 25 per cent of his talents earns in a season today. Sponsorships, huge amounts as prize money, match fees and other attendant sources of income have made millionaires out of cricketers. So much so that there are grounds to believe that for some cricketers making money has become more important than playing cricket. The real source of this kind of money-making is the public support that the cricketers receive. Behind sponsorships and the advertisements lie the mass following that the players command. This following, in its turn, is based on the performances of the players on the field. So the earnings of the cricketers are related to the images cricket lovers have of them. These images are of men who are dedicated to playing cricket and to giving their best for the team. Such an idea has taken a severe beating in the last few months, since Hansie Cronje confessed to taking money from bookies and named Mohammad Azharuddin as the person who had introduced him to a bookie. Cricket fans are no longer certain that players always try to give their best, that players are committed to playing cricket and that matches that they have seen were genuine and their results not fixed. Such is the fall in public credibility that no one will be surprised if it is discovered that cricketers have undeclared wealth and have sources of income which are best described as dubious. In the public eye, most of the cricketers have been tried and found wanting. The income tax raids constitute a coup de grâce to a languishing credibility. Public perception may well be of paramount importance in this case. There is nothing in Indian law which makes matchfixing - a term unknown when the laws of the land and the laws of cricket were drawn up - a criminal offence. And bribery is very difficult to prove. Betting under the Indian penal code is a minor offence. It remains to be seen if some cricketers are tax evaders. It is possible that cricketers may be able to avoid the arm of the law. But this may not be enough for a retrieval of their public image and for a redemption of their credibility. Cricketers will have to live with the fact that by allowing the shadow of suspicion to fall on them, they have brought disgrace to the noblest of games. This is not something that cricket lovers will forget and forgive easily. On this count, they are guilty even if they are legally proved to be innocent. This may seem unfair but it is inevitable for those who thrive in the limelight of fan frenzy.