CRICKET TAMASHA & ICC

WHY THE ICC IS A DEFUNCT BODY:

Every cricket playing nation and its players know that if you dissatisfy BCCI then its end of the road for the country or the player as the case may be. For that reason BCCI behaves like mafias don and does what suits its prime motive to earn more money and become super power in international cricket.

Let’s first analyze the playing condition and the rules. The 22yeards stripe is the key factor which makes heroes and zeros. Like tennis or hockey there is no uniformity of the surface or no guidelines from ICC but on paper a technical committee exists, it’s defunct body. Some countries, lift pitch from other place, some keep grass other put cow dung or binding gums or sand to look like a farmer’s court yard.

Next is boundary line at Adelaide, Kingston Jamaica, Nagpur, Melbourne, Lords and Barabati Stadium, Cuttack are all different some 70, some 65, some 100 yards, there is no uniformity, then how can you compare a six or a century of Melbourne with that of Nagpur in a test match?

DRS are not applied uniformly throughout the world, why? This is because ICC is afraid of BCCI and IPL powers and monetary benefits. Drug testing is again vehemently opposed by Indian players and ICC can’t do a thing about it?

Next is the ball used in test cricket: There is no uniformity in use of a cricket ball in test cricket, except the size? This is another area which ICC must decide in its annual board meetings. The officials go more for sightseeing and enjoyment trips rather than looking in to these finer aspects of the game.

If teams do not agree for DRS then their rating points in that series will not be taken in to account. If one agrees and the other does not than the former team gets ICC points not the later one.

Coming to neutral umpiring: Does a neutral umpire exist? Umpires are afraid to raise fingers against Captains or premier batsmen for fear of not being asked to stand in cash rich IPL tournament.

India is in huge financial debt from IMF, as on 31^st December 2012 it stands at $37639 crores, what way this IPL is going to help the Government to repay this loan? How many foreign players know about India’s real problems, like poverty, starvation, diseases and dilapidated government schools? Instead of having an annual affairs , why can’t ICC say you(BCCI) have it amongst your top ten teams instead of calling international players and squeezing out the public money, it’s in no way improve cricket, was evident from the present test matches against Australia, where matches were over in less than three to four days.ICC has its Champion’s trophy, World cup, Asian cup and other tournaments why to choose a poor country like India for this Cricket tamasha where half naked ladies, drunken players and spectators watch the match which are remotely controlled by a man across the Arabian sea. The ICC head quarter has been shifted from London to Dubai to evade tax?

This Writer is an Ex first class cricket player and ex. Joint director of SAIL, and senior consultant in medicine and intensivist.

Sanjoy Kumar Satpathy, Bhubaneswar