Quotehanger

  • "I have never seen an Australian team play such defensive cricket - which is a good thing for us."
    Fresh from his Man-of-the-Match performance in the Bangalore Test, Zaheer Khan fires a salvo against Australia

    Oct 13, 2008

  • Recent Posts

    Try DVD rental for £3.99 per month!

    The headlines

    The news

    TWC


    Articles tagged as: asian bloc

    BCCI flex their muscles

    By Will 8 months ago, Comments

    There is yet more evidence of the power that the BCCI wield, and the influence of the Asian bloc, with the news that the Indian board have bluntly warned Australia not to pull out of their tour of Pakistan. What right do they have to “warn” Australia? Not a lot, you would think. After all India is only one of ten members. But such is their immense financial clout, they will always get support from the Asian bloc (and support any Asian country who, in the BCCI’s opinion, need it) and Zimbabwe, West Indies and South Africa are easily swayed to help give India a 7-3 majority.

    BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla said Australia would face major repercussions if it abandoned the six-week tour, due to begin mid-March.

    “There will be serious consequences because you can’t just pull out a committed tour when the host board is giving you assurances about security and so is the government,” he said.

    “If the host board and government is willing to give assurances, you have to accept that you can’t just cancel a confirmed FTP tour,” he said.

    From Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.

    A deeply worrying development. Cricket is as unstable now as it has ever been, and I have absolutely no idea where it will all end up in five, 10, 20 years. Asian bloc v the rest? You wouldn’t bet against it.

    Comments