Some Cricket Ramblings

ICC has rejected Gangully’s appeal; they asked him to take a walk. Just a week ago Gangully lost about 70% of his match fees. It is very sad to know that 70% of the money to ICC comes from the Indian Subcontinent, yet we get treated like cattle. We are a bunch of crazy cricket loving fools, we fund ICC. However ICC at regular intervals manages to misuse their power and most of all, this seems have a racial tint. I did not come to this conclusion just after single Gangully incident; I recently read a well researched article by Mr. Anil of Sports Network. Each and every line in this article seemed to make sense or I would call it “Forehead beatings – aka nethi adi”. ICC has the racial stink and awards a second class treatment to the teams from “colored” countries. This seems to be true.

Anil quotes an incident that most cricket follower will remember, Shakur Rana vs Chris Broad, ICC-1987. Chris Broad was given out caught behind by the umpire Shakur Rana [Yes! where is “god” fame] ; however the batsmen one Mr. Broad refused to walk out, he started to argue with the umpire for quite sometime until Mike Gatting dragged him out of the ground. This excruciating behavior of Broad continued for some time, and finally he was axed from the English team for his unprofessional conduct and behavior.

But! Today ICC appoints the same guy as a match referee. His portfolio allows him to manage such offenses once done by him. He is now in charge of punishing people. What a stupid irony?? How can ICC recruit an EX-CON of the game to judge of such behaviors? Do you know during the Australia tour Sri Lankan complained that Mr. Broad spends his evening drinking with the Aussies; how can a judge spend his time with the defendants or the accused? Even an infant will tell you, a special interest rapport is being built by Broad and the Aussies.

Coming back to Gangully’s Ban, I am really surprised why Indian media has not got on to this issue. Hope the world remembers this, [Darren Lehman Vs Sri Lanka Cricket Board Aus/ SL], when Darren Lehman of Australia made racial remarks on Sri Lankan players, he was given a lame 5 match ban, world called it as mere eye wash. But ICC told that 5 match ban was enough punishment. My point is when a player with such a serious behavioral violation is let go with just 5 match ban, how can Mr. Broad award a 6 match ban on Gangully, that too on a logistic violation in spite of the weather conditions.?, don’t you think that this sends a message? Once again Mr. Broad is trying to show off his racial attitude on teams from the sub continent. So might say, hey! Wasn’t Gangully warned enough, duh!

Check the case, Michael Vaughan vs. ICC. Jan-Feb 2005, [England /South Africa] Anil quotes, “England captain Michael Vaughan was fined a paltry 10% for being fully 5 overs behind in an ODI against SA in February this year, the second time within 20 days when he was found running behind, shortly after a 50% fine for being another 5 overs short of target in late January against the same opponents. “ Why wasn’t Michael Vaughan given the same level of punishment as Gangully? Or let me rephrase, how the hell is Gangully’s so called offense greator than above incident? What was Broad thinking when considering such a punishment? What is the answer?, Yeh Yeh he is protected by ICC code of conduct and he need not explain anything to anyone. If ICC had the Match referee in place when Broad played cricket, for his behavioral values he would have been grounded just after 2 games and would have never earned single pound [physically and financially]

Bottom line, From Jan 16th to April 12th 2005 , Mr. Broad has issued about 9 punishments on teams from Asia, Indians and the Pakistanis suffering the most. With such a rude behavior tagged to his name during his cricketing days, in first place I feel it is really disgusting to see him be the match referee. But then, Why BCCI accepted the terms blindly? Spineless? Pathetic Bunch? Or tally unsettled accounts with Gangully? We will never know, however Mr.Dalmia loves power and he is powerful in the game management, why does he hesitate to take on ICC? BCCI should send a clear message to ICC. “Mr. Broad misuses his power with Narrow racial motives hence he should be banned from the referee box for ever” and for Gangully, it is too much of a ban. His case should be considered.

To conclude my ramblings, the ransacked Indian team and its brand new replacement skipper could do nothing other than forget how Pakistanis trashed them for 4 games in a row now. Gangully departure did not bring in any change. What to do with Yuvraj Singh and Kaif? I don’t know, Yuvraj has never scored if India has had poor start. Kaif’s technique looks very doubtful and for some elites there is still Sachin to blame.

Bowlers on these dirt tracks resembles school league. India needs to rethink a lot and as of today John Wright is gone, Sanjay Manjrakar recently mentioned that Sachin needs to play in middle order, I think I would agree to it now, why? We found Dhoni. Dravid would play 1, get back Gangully, and then Sachin will follow. Also the 7 batsmen lineup has to change. We need good bowlers; however they need good seaming tracks instead of mud pits. Gangully has left a cat out of its bag today; it seems the pitches were prepared with the consent of the team think tanks. What ever, One day cricket will undergo a rapid change before the next world cup, We need a good coach who would get us right on the track, I speculate Allan Border reason, he recently resigned a very good job [Australian selector], and who knows he did it for being the next Indian coach. Anyway, I am just speculating. Who ever is made the coach has a big task in hand. It about time we get multi dimensional players yes one more generation of Kapil Dev, Ian Botham or Imarn Khan who are good in fielding, sensible Batting and shrewd Bowling.

If Indians don’t change their strategy and plan execution it is just matter of time Bangladesh will move ahead of us in the ICC rating.