Man, I was jumping up and down when I saw that the PCB had included 3 ICL players in the prelim squad for the T20 WC.
Finally, someone was going to tell the BCCI to fuck off.
However, these buggers have backtracked and kept them as reserves.
Jeez, doesn’t anyone have the balls to challenge the BCCI juggernaut?
Perhaps we should be giving an honorary award to Sky Sports for keeping Macca and not changing the timing..
All due credit to Paul Ford of the Cricinfo blog ‘Different Strokes’ for the title, which aptly reflects what the BCCI have become.
Here’s another absolute classic from Dylan Cleaver of the New Zealand Herald..
It’s a truly absurd thing [for the BCCI] to flex their muscles in the commentary box for fear that Ravi Shastri (IPL) and Craig McMillan (ICL) might accidentally exchange bodily fluids that could eventually infect all the right-thinking people of the cricketing world.
The BCCI sure is stretching the limits of stupidity by ordering the NZC to withdraw Craig ‘Macca’ McMillian from the commentary box for the 1st test. Their biggest problem seems to be the fact that Ravi ‘Shaz’ Shastri is the gem of Sony Max (the broadcasters of the tour and of the IPL), and they don’t want an ICL player sitting beside him! I really think that someone has brainwashed all the officials of the BCCI into thinking that ICL players have some incurable disease (perhaps AIDS, with all due respect to people suffering from it) and that they might, by some chance, make someone else contract the disease just by standing beside them (which any right thinking person knows is not true).
I can vaguely understand the reasons for banning the ICL players from domestic cricket and the chance to represent India, but I think it is stretching the limits of absurdity to actually expect the world to do it.
Even before this stupid episode, the BCCI had asked Darryl Tuffey and Hamish Marshall to withdraw from the Auckland and Northern Districts teams respectively so that some of their test players could get some practice ahead of the test series. They did well by telling them to fuck off. However, the fact that the Indian board let the test players to play in the other teams contradicts their position because, since Tuffey and Marshall are still playing in the tournament, the NZ domestic competition should have been officially ‘ICL infected’!
Sachin Tendulkar and Dinesh Karthik were also withdrawn from the curtain-raiser for the second T20i, which was supposed to be an exhibition match between 2 teams composed by the NZC because Karthik was set to play alongside Marshall. How stupid!
Well well, am I surprised?
Not really!
Why?
Come on, did anyone, for a moment, actually think that anyone would really skip this tour? OK, now that the security report from Reg Dickason was positive, everyone’s hugging and kissing each other. If it was negative, would the players have actually skipped the tour? This is the best chance for everyone to parade their skills in front of IPL talent scouts, and would the players have forgone the chance? No way, Jose!
Well, everyone is now slapping KP on the back and saying “Well done mate, you’ve done everyone proud by not cowering to the terrorists”, but (I don’t mean to sound extremely negative) would they have really gone if the same thing happened in Pakistan? or even Sri Lanka, for that matter?
Pakistan and SL are not lucrative at all, so it’s subject to extreme doubt!
I was watching ‘The Bank Job’ really late in the night, and, as I finished watching it, I got onto BBC and saw the news piece about the hostage situations in Mumbai. I was just too sleepy to read anything, so I heaved myself onto the bed and slept for nearly 10 hours.
The next morning, I wake up, and see that the BCCI and the ECB have decided to not play the rest of the ODIs. That was a really sensible decision. However, the fact that they wanted to play the Test matches came about as insensitive and stupid on the part of the BCCI.
I know, they have a lot of financial considerations at stake if they cancel the test series too, as they consider a tour by England the next best thing after Australia, and the cancellation could have serious financial consequences, but, COME ON!
It would be kinda stupid if they wanted to leave because of a bomb blast, as it happens nearly everywhere! But, a hostage situation? Damn, I would never even set foot in Mumbai, knowing that I could possibly be trapped in a hostage situation. Also, the fact that the England team had stayed there a few weeks ago really brought it down hard.
Just imagine if the 5th ODI had been held in Mumbai? They would’ve stayed in the Taj Mahal Hotel!
Simply relocating the venue to Chennai, or any other place, for that matter, isn’t gonna’ suffice. The BCCI shouldn’t, out of humane reasons, force the ECB to send a team, whatever the financial considerations may be. I’d prefer if Lalit Modi would’ve been in one of the hotels, so that he knows what it’d possibly feel like for the England players right now!
Lalit Modi also expects us to actually believe that the Champion’s League wasn’t postponed due to security problems! Who’s he trying to bullshit? I’m sure that the teams from Australia and South Africa would’ve raised the middle finger at Modi, and so would the like of Watson, Oram, Hayden and Hussey, who played for the Indian franchises. He really should consider moving the CL to a place like England, where there’s a huge Indian and Pakistani population out there!
Everything’s made all the more nerve-chilling by the fact that the terrorists were searching for people which had British passports! Just imagine, again, if the Englishmen were there. I’m sure that we wouldn’t be seeing them speaking in media conferences now!
The English players should be given the freedom to not tour if they don’t feel comfortable about it, and they shouldn’t be facing any repercussions as a result of doing so. In this sense, KP has acted really responsibly, saying that he wouldn’t control the England players once they’ve left the playing turf!
PS – The England kit is still at the Taj Mahal hotel……
My my, I think a thousand flies would’ve been able to enter my mouth when I saw the top news on cricinfo! Quite unbelievable, isn’t it? I was expecting something like this to come from a bigger power, someone like Australia or South Africa! But, this coming from a board which has an overdraft of nearly Rs. 200 million ($2 million), is just shocking!
Well, if you look at it from another angle, it isn’t all the too shocking, when you consider the fact that Arjuna was behind this, as he isn’t in everyone’s good books due to the fact that he likes to give everyone a piece of his mind. I don’t think a lot of people can forget the ‘finger – wagging’ he gave the Aussie ump, Russell Tiffin (or someone, I’m not sure of the name), a piece of his mind. There are many incidents, most recent of which was his comments on T20 cricket and the IPL, comparing it to a ‘thamasha’ (party), which didn’t go too well with the BCCI.
Moreover, I was quite surprised to see the likes of Russell Arnold and Upul Chandana, ICL recruits, on the presentation stage during the recently concluded India – Sri Lanka ODI series! Of all the countries, it had to be in a series involving India that these guys had to be there! You have to admire Arjuna’s bravery!
However, insider sources revealed something disheartening, yet something I have come to expect when reading about the mismanagement of Sri Lanka cricket. Apparently, popular Sri Lankan whistleblower site, lankadissent.com, had published an article stating that the ban was lifted mainly because Atapattu, one of the ICL recruits, is a close relative of Arjuna!
Perhaps that’s why the media manager, Shane Fernando, stopped short of clarifying whether future ICL recruits will also be allowed to play domestic cricket or not!
Off Cutter 