Cricket Blog

10 Bangladeshis want to sign up to the rebel ICL tournament. BCCI is not happy. Bangladesh Cricket Board bans these players for 10 years. What does ICC do? NOTHING. As expected. The ICC needs to make it clear that this is not tolerable. If every player decides to start playing in every other unofficial league, then there will be total chaos in the sport.

BCCI may be considered as a monolith, but atleast it is trying to keep things under control. Yes, there are arguments with that statement. Too much control is bad. But no control is even worse. ICC is no longer relevant these days as can be seen by the actions of teams who decided not to go to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy, or the recent decision by the Sri Lankan Cricket Board that allows ICL players to play for their domestic teams.

So what should ICC do in this case? The most logical step is to ban ICL and any other non-official league. Send out a strong signal that any ICL related player will be banned from participating in any official match/tournament.

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Judge Hansen, from New Zealand, gave the verdict of Not Guilty to the racism charge against Harbhajan Singh in a hearing that lasted almost 6 hours. After hearing evidence from the stump microphones, Judge Hansen said that he was convinced that on all evidence submitted before him the charge of a level 3.3 offence was not proven, but that Harbhajan should be charged with a level 2.8 offence.

Harbhajan admitted that he was guilty of using foul language and so has been fined 50 percent of his match fee. A lot of supporters back in India and overseas will find this justice, and it may be, but the way it has been achieved leaves a sour taste.

The initial ban on Habhajan should have been handled more professionally. When you are charging a high profile player from the biggest money-making machine for the ICC, one has to be careful and thoughtful about the possible ramifications. Mike Proctor was guilty of failing on both counts. He made the mistake of believing Andrew Symonds’ and Matty Hayden’s word against Harbhajan Singh and Sachin Tendulkar’s. When there are witnesses from both sides testifying to different things, even a common person knows that a judge needs more conclusive evidence. Proctor ignored this basic rule to brand Bhajji racist. He lost his reputation. Australia lost the battle then and there.

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A lot of so-called “neutral observers” have mentioned that India’s reaction to the SCG test has been way over the top, the BCCI are bullies, the Indian players are hypocrites, Harbhajan Singh is a racist, the burning of effigies is a barbaric act. I could go on and on.

All the above comments/theories are not going to make matters any easy, they are going to further enrage a nation that is already on the brink of pulling out of the tour. Let me point something out before I start shredding these statements apart. First and foremost, cricket is not a passion in India, it is a religion in its most literal term. The psyche of an Indian fan is that their players are like gods that are battling it out with the rest of the world. So what if they lose. Hey the English only won the Soccer World Cup once, and yet over there soccer is the same as what cricket is in India. What about Aussie rules football. Who really knows about this sport besides the Australians. And yet it overtakes cricket or any other sport in popularity. Oh, and don’t even get me started talking about the crowd/players behavior during a Carlton-Collingwood match.

Cricket is not a contact sport, but the way sledging and intimidation is going on, it may very well become. How much crap can a person take before he gives it back. The Indian players are not like bowling pins that every Tom, Dick and Harry comes and knocks them over. This isn’t India under Mahatma Gandhi that believes in non-violence as the key. This is a young and aggressive India who knows its history of being oppressed by foreigners. So why should they be intimidated by a team that has a known history of insulting, abusing and discriminating its opponents.

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The Board of Control for Cricket in India has viewed the happenings during the second cricket Test between India and Australia in Sydney with great concern as some of these can have a far-reaching impact on international cricket. Some of incidents are highly regrettable considering the warm and friendly relations between the Indian and Australian cricket Boards. The incident involving Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds and the subsequent hearing by the ICC Match Referee and his conclusions are, to say the least, distressing. The Indian Board does not accept the findings of the match referee and has decided to challenge the unfair decision to suspend Harbhajan Singh as it deems it patently unfair. The Board will appeal to the International Cricket Council to review the decision of the Match Referee and suspend its operation till the appeal is disposed of. The Indian Board realizes the game of cricket is paramount but so too is the honour of the Indian team and for that matter every Indian. To vindicate its position, the Board will fight the blatantly false and unfair slur on an Indian player. The Board also questions the very conduct of the hearing as the Match Referee before reaching his decision disregarded the essential point of any inquiry, that it should be based on facts, rational, detached and objective. The Board, in particular, is unhappy with the charge of racial slur against India’s of-spinner Harbhajan Singh. Here it may be mentioned that it is an avowed policy of the Indian government to fight racial discrimination at every level and the India Board has been at the forefront to eradicate it from the game of cricket. For the Indian Board anti-racial stance is an article of faith as it is for the entire nation which fought the apartheid policies. The Board has always fought the racist sledging of players and spectators and it will continue to do so.

Niranjan Shah
Hon. Secretary, BCCI

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