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John Howard reaches career zenith
By Will Wednesday, 2 weeks ago, No Comments; be the first!
John Howard probably achieved plenty during his tenure as Australian prime minister. I don’t know a thing about Aussie politics, but the impression Howard gave off – a combination of Bush’s feigned blokeishness and Blair’s transparent fawning – somehow appealed to me. That’s clearly bullshit. I liked him because he liked cricket. And when I say liked, I lie. He is obsessed by the game.
I always knew he’d make it into the game eventually. He’s got the top job as ICC president, starting in 2012. For a man who can barely wipe the child-like grin off his face whenever he’s watching bat on ball, this is a victory sweeter than any he achieved in his political career.
However, this is the man who called Muttiah Muralitharan a chucker. He’s never been involved in sport in his life, to my knowledge, so apart from his obvious and healthy love of the game, and a career in politics, it’s a curious decision by the ICC. He will be surrounded by sport and cricket administrators, and though his experience in handling diplomatic and governmental matters will do him no harm, will he have the balls to stand up to India and the Asian bloc or take a hard line on excruciatingly sensitive matters like Zimbabwe?
In other words, will his being a fan hinder his presidency? It’s going to be fascinating to watch how he copes.
No Comments »Modi lures football to take over the world
By Will 1 month ago, 5 Comments »
Lalit Modi has risen from seemingly nowhere. Unlike us sleepy Englishmen, with our excellent ideas but reluctance to ever commercialise them – or, perhaps more fairly, our endemic resistance to change – Modi’s timing was spot on. He saw Twenty20 as the adrenaline kick cricket needed, a drug for the fans and moreover for television executives to crave. The ICC, like the ECB, were caught off guard yet Modi spotted his chance and got the international board on side, brushing off the Indian Cricket League – and doubtless others – with a disdainful arrogance not readily afforded to someone who had, apparently, appeared from nowhere. Remarkably, he calls the shots.
That, ladies and gents, is the man we are dealing with. There is a distasteful arrogance to the way in which he announces some of his latest ventures and his name does not attract great affection or joy, rather a looming fear. But that’s only because the rest of the world is envious, shaking their heads disbelievingly at the ease with which he has transformed the game, occasionally showing an insouciance of self belief in his vision not seen since Steve Jobs first took to the stage wearing loose-fitting jeans and grubby trainers. Modi knows he’s nailed it. The IPL is his iPhone, a game-changing device applauded by the world.
The rest of the sport and her clubs are fawning for his attention, and not just cricket teams. Modi might havs snared football into the bargain now, too:
“There is a football club, a very famous football club in the UK, very interested in bidding,” Modi said. “[They are] probably one of the most famous football clubs – that’s all I can say. Probably top three. They are interested in taking a stake.”
Responding to speculation in the Indian media, Modi later said on his Twitter page that the club in mention was not Chelsea. A report in the Sun named Manchester City as the team looking at buying a franchise although the club told Cricinfo they were not involved.
The IPL will include two more teams from the 2011 season and will auction the franchise rights at a base price of $225 million ahead of the third season, which starts in India on March 12, and will invite potential investors this week. That figure – double of what the most expensive franchise was sold for in 2008 and more than four times the base price in that first auction – is, in an uncertain market, a sign of the league’s confidence in itself and the Twenty20 format.
According to Modi, the MCC would be a value addition to the IPL and open up the possibility of taking the bandwagon overseas to Lord’s. “I have talked [to MCC] last night and they are quite interested,” he said.
When will he have his iPad moment?
5 Comments »ICC could return to London
By Will last year, at the start of December, No Comments; be the first!
So the ICC might be joining dozens of large organisations by fleeing the dusty hell-hole of strange buildings and the false economy of Dubai to return to Lord’s, housed in leafy London. No less a false economy, you might think, based, as it is, on bankers gambling the public’s money and then thriving off their bonuses (before America’s housing market collapses again, and the government bail out the bankers who in turn persuade us that “everything’s absolutely fine, honestly, so do keep banking with us so we can continue to gamble your money and keep us and the government in power,” thereby perpetuating the myth that democracy actually exists.
I really, really could go off on one about democracy but now’s not the time.
So yes, the ICC might be coming back to Lord’s. I always quite liked the fact they were so far away, even if getting hold of them on the phone was often impossible. “Sorry! On the golf course. In a buggy, in fact.” – “Yes, but there have been allegations of chucking from xyz.” etc.
But what do the public think about this? Well I went ahead and asked them, and here’s one of the succinct replies:
“Fuck Pakistan. Pashtunistan Zindabad. Pakistan army is raping our Pathan women and torturing our innocent old,” offered one. “They are real lions and they derserve to be a no:01 team in the game of cricket,” tapped another.
Oh god.
No Comments »Not here for now
By Will last year, mid-April, No Comments; be the first!
I’m out in South Africa, in case you hadn’t noticed, covering the World Cup Qualifiers, so all my stuff can be read at Cricinfo. All sorts of gubbins. An interview with Richard Done, an Afghanistan refugee, Colin Wells (remember him?) and other bits. Shan’t be blogging at all until early May, or possibly longer.
No Comments »Oval result recieves another ICC U-turn
By Mark Tilley last year, at the start of February, 10 Comments »
The ICC have, once again, changed the result of that infamous Oval Test match between England and Pakistan in 2006. The match, notable for the allegations against Pakistan of ball-tampering and the subsequent decision of the Pakistani’s to delay play by not re-entering the field after tea, was originally given as a win for England. Last July, the ICC decided to change the official result to a draw. However, the powers that be have decided to re-instate England’s ‘win’ and the result of series will go down as 3-0 to England.
Haroon Lorgat, ICC Chief Executive, has said that the decision ensures ‘the integrity of the game’. Is it the right decision. The adjusted series scoreline certainly flatters England as they did not deserve to win that Oval Test – Pakistan held a huge first innings lead and England had just about made up that deficit when the drama all kicked off.
However, awarding Pakistan a draw would be like rewarding them for not playing the game. Whether they were guilty or not in the whole ball-tampering fiasco, no team should have the power to delay a game on their terms. They should have been aware of the consequences of their actions and accepted the decision. As much as the umpires were in the wrong, the one thing they did right was to follow the rules of the game.
Far be it from me though to say what is right and what is wrong. Have the ICC made the right decision, finally? Thoughs, comments and answers are encouraged below please.
10 Comments »Butt on a roll
By Will 2 years ago, mid-October, No Comments; be the first!
Another press conference. More dull, mundane and probably inane quotes to listen to, record, transcribe and hack. At least, that was probably the sentiments of most Pakistani journalists when they rounded on Lahore and descended on Ijaz Butt’s first press conference as Pakistan’s chairman. And what a press conference it was.
Just when my colleague was about to leave, and seemingly unprovoked, Butt spilled forth the sort of juicy quotes some journalists wait a lifetime for. “The ICL think they have a good case” was dispatched through the covers. “The ICC are worried about the ICL” appeared to be drifting down the leg-side, but nevertheless it was smudged through midwicket with power and flair. The poor journalists didn’t have a hope of stopping him. Oh, and not forgetting his coup-de-grace – the most delicate of leg-glances to announce that, yes, the ICC are thinking of merging the Indian Premier League and the ICL (its unsanctioned cousin) to form one mammoth league. Yes, indeed. (If you’re not aware, the ICL is unofficial. The IPL is official and recognised by the ICC. The ICL want to be official. The ICL doesn’t think the ICC can have one official league and one unofficial league, but neither can it have two official leagues, it seems. So it could all end up in court, and the lawyers will all get very, very rich indeed.)
This was a press conference of dizzying revelations, almost none of it planned or expected. Quite what the ICC are thinking now is anyone’s guess, but it’s safe to assume that they’ll be up most of the night wondering just what Mr Butt had for his breakfast. I’m thinking it was two Weetabix and three boiled eggs.
There was more, too. Geoff Lawson, the coach, was sacked (not until April next year though. So he’s got six months in which to try and convince his players, if not himself, that he’s the right man for the job.)
Pure entertainment.
No Comments »Sri Lanka cannot – must not – tour Zimbabwe
By Steven Price 2 years ago, mid-October, 5 Comments »
Steven Price is a freelance journalist in Zimbabwe
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This week’s news that Sri Lanka’s players and board have opted to play in the Indian Premier League rather than honour a signed commitment to tour England next year has been noted with interest inside Zimbabwe’s dwindling cricket community. They have sent a clear signal: when the choice is between money and playing for your country then cash is king. The question now is what will happen when the decision is between playing for your county and morality.
Sri Lanka are scheduled, according to the ICCs increasingly meaningless Future Tour Program, to visit Zimbabwe sometime in the next few months. According to the blinkered logic of the ICC, there is absolutely no reason the series should not go ahead.
However if you speak to anyone inside the country (anyone, that is, not in the dollar-rich inner circle of the Zimbabwe cricket board) there is increasing incredulity that anyone can seriously consider playing given the current situation inside the Zimbabwe.
The ICC might drone on about sport and politics not mixing (Pakistan might raise an eyebrow or two at that suggestion) but there has to come a point, somewhere, when even the most blinkered logic realises enough is enough.
By the United Nations’ own estimates, almost half of Zimbabwe’s 10 million population are on the brink of starvation. Ignoring the whys and wherefores of the reasons for that, can Sri Lanka’s players really sit in their cosseted five-star hotels in Harare and Bulawayo and eat their bountiful meals while half of the very people serving them are starving?
The tourists will not be harmed. Zimbabweans are peaceful people. And besides, the state-run police and security forces will ensure only the handpicked few get near enough to even shake their hands. But the issue is not security. By touring, the Sri Lankans will be giving credibility to Robert Mugabe’s insane claims that things are OK. How can they not be when cricket sides are happy to tour? No longer can anyone seriously maintain that the cricketers will not be used as a political tool.
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Cricket has all but ceased inside Zimbabwe despite the propaganda of the board. School cricket is dead outside the few surviving private establishments, through no fault of ZC – the schools themselves are dead. Teachers have fled the country in thousands and there is no money for books, repairs or salaries of those that remain. Inflation, now 240,000,000% and rising, saps the will to live.
Club cricket is in a similar state. Almost all the good, qualified coaches have left, along with a steady flow of local players, and for most there is no way of maintaining facilities or buying equipment. The only few clubs that continue to prosper, and the ones where visiting ICC dignitaries are shown, are those such as Tashinga with close links to the government.
The chances of the Logan Cup taking place this season are also diminishing. The veneer of normality and the illusion that the game is thriving across the land was maintained last year by ZC bussing players from Harare to other regions to boost the playing strength of areas where the game was dying.
The decision over the Sri Lanka tour will have been made in Dubai this week where the ICC executives met. The thought that Peter Chingoka, a man banned by the European Community because of his overt links to the Mugabe regime, could fly business class to such a meeting and be wined and dined in a luxurious hotel while his country starves underlines for many the hypocrisy of the ICC.
The question now is whether, given the collapse of the power-sharing agreement and the impending humanitarian disaster, anyone can seriously want to play cricket in Zimbabwe. Sri Lanka’s players were quick enough to take a stand when money was at stake. We can only hope they are as quick to rest on their morals.
5 Comments »Hair restored
By Will 2 years ago, mid-March, 5 Comments »
Darrell Hair has been welcomed back into the 36DD bosom of the ICC following his “six month rehabilitation” which, among other things, involved him standing in a few ICC Intercontinental matches. Interesting development, not least because there’s no way on earth the Pakistan Cricket Board would ever have sanctioned his return to the fold following The Oval Test debacle. For what it’s worth, he’s one of the better umpires on the Elite panel, so I’m pleased he’s back. Besides – we haven’t had an opportunity for hairy puns for quite some time.
Are you pleased to see Hair restored to the fold?
5 Comments »BCCI flex their muscles
By Will 2 years ago, mid-February, 24 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.
24 Comments »Where’s the charm?
By Will 2 years ago, mid-January, 3 Comments »
A fine and balanced piece by John Benaud in today’s Independent on Sunday. So good, in fact, that I’m pasting it below.
3 Comments »Cricket is always having crises. Books are written and entitled, inevitably, ‘Cricket At The Crossroads’. You’ll recall Bodyline, the World Series Cricket breakaway… and in between the occasional tuppenny bunger, like pathetic over-rates, chucking and so on. Generally, there’s a good guy and a bad guy, and in the above real-deal controversies Douglas Jardine and Kerry Packer were nasties.
The India captain Anil Kumble’s self-indulgent hijacking of “good guy” Australia captain Bill Woodfull’s line “only one team is playing cricket”, uttered during the 1932-33 Bodyline series, was immediately spotted by us cynics with “ocker” accents as code for: “My team have just lost a Test nobody thought they could and I’d like you all to bag nasty Australia and their captain instead of me, in case back home they think we’re the bad guys and torch our houses.”
Ponting is tactically dull, abrasive, prone to snap and a sometimes ungracious winner, but of more urgent concern than any character study of him is the bunch of no-hopers who wander/administer aimlessly under the abbreviatedanonymity of “The ICC”.
One can only guess how embarrassing it must be to have anyone know you are officially part of the International Cricket Council and your claim to fame is the absolute shambles that passes for world cricket in 2008. Put the chief executive, Malcolm Speed, and his team in the dock and even Rumpole’s most junior solicitor could win, his case rested on the evidence of the World Cup last year.
Laws have been changed to accommodate bowlers who throw; the Darrell Hair case remains impossible to fathom, at least for those of us who played and understood the spirit of the game before the ICC lawyers measured out their runs; the crooks of Zimbabwe are rewarded with ongoing recognition; and now a talented umpire who has a bad game can be sent home.
There was a time when the greatest insult to an Australian cricketer was to mention the phrase “no sheep in the top paddock”. After the SCG Test the words “monkey” and “bastard” are apparently offensive. Speed and Co have a new challenge: compile a dictionary of words that are offensive to the modern cricketer, or his culture.
Before they make bigger asses of themselves they should recall the Collis King incident, Mount Smart Stadium, New Zealand, 1978. King, a most talented West Indian all-rounder then playing in World Series Cricket, took a terrible blow to the right groin and collapsed. The physio applied the magic “freeze” spray, but to no avail, and the stretcher arrived. This roused King, who looked down at his “magic-sprayed” groin, sat up abruptly and announced: “Jesus, I’m turning white; quick, spray me all over!”
Past players think modern cricket has no sense of humour, subtlety, finesse and characters, and little goodwill; that it lacks a certain class, charm even. Here’s proof: in 1961, Australia’s Richie Benaud and West Indies’ Frank Worrell agreed pre-series to “have some fun”.
In 2008, when Ponting and Kumble met before the start of the series, it was to discuss how best to defuse an evolving problem: fielders claiming catches that bounce. Cheating.
The ICC, with a little pressure from the odd cricket board, will surely find a way to legalise that in no time.
On effigies, cheating and monkeys
By Jonathan Liew 2 years ago, at the start of January, 56 Comments »
This has all the makings of an Asia-Rest of the World showdown that has been threatening a denouement for several years now. I really hope not.
But first things first: fire and the burning of effigies don’t exactly have the same significance they might have in Britain or Australia. Fire is an intrinsic part of Indian culture – at a Hindu wedding, for example, a fire sacrifice is made, and the bride and groom have to walk around it seven times. And nobody really takes the death threats seriously. And the donkey thing – well, that was just funny. Some of Benson’s Kent team mates will have had a good chuckle at that.
As for cheating – well, there’s no evidence anybody deliberately cheated. Walking is nice, but not compulsory, and while some of the appealing and catch-claiming was pure, cynical gamesmanship, it wasn’t illegal. It’s therefore a disciplinary issue alone, to be discussed at length in an air-conditioned room with plenty of cold drinks available.
And the ‘racist slur’ – it doesn’t really matter if the word ‘monkey’ is racist or not. We can’t be sure it was said. There was certainly enough evidence to charge Harbhajan (and possibly Symonds too) with verbal abuse, but Mike Proctor and the ICC are really going to wish they hadn’t opened up the whole ‘racist’ can of worms. How – I mean, honestly, how – did they think this was going to end?
But however wronged India may feel, they’re forgetting rule number one of cricket – get on the field and play. You can get angry afterwards. Let’s hope that the TV companies have a quiet word with the BCCI. Perhaps money can achieve what diplomacy clearly can’t.
56 Comments »ICC centenary celebrations
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of October, 2 Comments »
So, in 2009, the ICC will commemorate its centenary and the big cheeses are going to meet up to discuss how to celebrate this momentus occasion. Patrick says:
Any bright ideas out there for how the ICC should mark the occasion? I’d quite like them to have a month of apathy, when they do no administrating and we can see whether the game will survive. Or how about a month-long World Test Championship, when the leading eight Test nations, divided into two pools with a final for the teams that come top, compete in the only proper form of cricket?
Nah. They’ll probably just have another 50-over tournament to fill the gap between the 2008 Champions Trophy and the 2011 World Cup.
Any ideas? Now that they live in Dubai – where, among the desert camels, you can find an indoor ski centre – why don’t they create a vineyard? ICC Chardonnay, 2009 in honour of, well, you know who…
2 Comments »‘A ridiculously crowded international schedule’
By Will 3 years ago, mid-October, 5 Comments »
Andrew Strauss has blamed his loss of form, luck and his Test place partly on the ‘ridiculously crowded international schedule’. He does not strike me as someone who gives up easily, or who minces his words, and his column at Sunday Telegraph makes for depressing reading.
Without any sort of window in the last 18 months – in a ridiculously crowded international schedule – to take stock, make technical changes and refresh the mind, turning it around has been extremely difficult.
It isn’t that I have been completely out of form, unable to contend with the rigours of Test cricket, but rather that I have been caught in a limbo, where every decent innings seemed to be followed by a low score. Without nailing a couple of really substantial contributions to silence the doubters, the pressure has grown.
When will the ICC realise that they are running a sport that is eroding from within? Cricket is doomed if they continue to run talented players – their most prized commodity, surely? – into the ground, beyond repair. Strauss is the latest victim of the crammed schedule. Who will be next?
5 Comments »‘World cricket all but paralysed’
By Will 3 years ago, mid-October, 31 Comments »
You know your sport’s in a real mess when, in the space of 12 months, it can host a disastrous World Cup; investigate a murder; have an umpire take the game’s governing body to court; host a much more successful World Cup six months later but not call it a World Cup. Oh, and racism has popped up its ugly duplicitous head again.
The ICC has lost all credibility. I don’t know of another governing body in any sport which is quite so dysfunctional, and this latest spate of racism will further divide the Members unless the ICC – and India – act now. I refer you to Patrick Smith’s excellent column:
WORLD cricket is all but paralysed. The ruling body cannot make a decision that is not compromised. Bowling has been reduced to throwing, umpiring to the art of convenience, racial abuse to a point of view. Player behaviour teeters on the brink of violence.
Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralidaran is outside the law, so change the law and not the action. The ICC considers Darrell Hair umpires by the book and is not a buddy of the players. Sack him.
Pakistan and India refuse to appoint officers to investigate racism in the sport. The ICC has been reduced to writing letters that are ignored and beating the heat in Dubai. Apparently Pakistan and India players and supporters can only be offended and never offensive.
Racial vilification has been redefined. What is said is no longer critical, but who says it to whom is at its heart. So Symonds is vilified by Indian supporters and it goes unheard and ignored. CA whimpers its concern but fails to report the matter officially.
I don’t believe any sport is rife with racism. Not at all. But sportsmen are as much members of society as the rest of us, and we are living in a confused and fragmented world these days. Sport can reflect that with uncomfortable clarity.
31 Comments »Like a pair of naughty schoolboys
By Jonathan Liew 3 years ago, mid-October, 9 Comments »
Trying to prove in a court of law that the governing body of cricket is racist is an ambitious aim, and it may well be that Darrell Hair’s surrender stems from a realisation that he was going to lose, and lose expensively. It also appears that he hasn’t managed to cut a deal with the ICC, and is thus probably destined to spend the rest of his life umpiring club cricket and shopping at Primark.
I can’t think of a single incident in the last decade which has split cricket more evenly. Both sides’ arguments make eminent sense. Yes, Hair was simply applying the laws of the game, yes, the Asian lobby probably do wield too much power and yes, the ICC should have offered him more support. But equally validly, Hair was a pompous, posturing fool that day, there was no firm evidence of ball-tampering and trying to blackmail your employers for $500,000, let alone labelling them racist, is just plain daft.
Mercifully, then, it appears to be all over. It’s not really for me to apportion blame to one side or the other – although you should feel free below – but in this ugly display of playground mudslinging, neither party has exactly covered itself in glory and you can’t help thinking that surely, surely, the world of cricket can do better than this. Hair and the ICC have behaved like a pair of name-calling schoolboys. And as your teacher always told you: “It doesn’t matter who started it. You shouldn’t have reacted.â€
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