and a golden opportunity.
The ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 is a text book example of a badly managed, badly run mega event.
And in that debacle lie lessons for the "Asian block" as they get together to host the next edition of the World Cup in 2011.
For starters, the logistical aspect of organizing a tournament of this scale. The 2011 tournament is spread across 4 nations and they will do well to recognize the problems faced by traveling fans from different nations.
The 4 nations, and in particular India, will do well to limit the games to a few select stadiums instead of making people traverse the length and breadth of individual countries and playing in remote outposts ( wouldn't categorize Pune as a remote outpost but seriously, is Nehru stadium seriously going to be a WC venue?).
I would volunteer to suggest 4 venues in India - Bangalore, Kolkata, Mohali and Mumbai. Limit the cricket to these 4 places ( all of the stadiums come equipped with flood lights and all four are metros).
The BCCI and the World Cup organizing committee in general, would do well to recognize the impact of matches conceded ( 1996 and 2003) and to include this in their scheduling.
The 2007 World Cup was too long - the ICC has promised to truncate the length of the tourney in 2011.
The 2007 World Cup excluded the very people whose joie de vivre it was set to celebrate - the Asian nations will do well to schedule the tournament in the right season and not go gung ho on the ticket prices ( Arent tickets already overpriced - 1500 rupees to sit on a stump of wood with two nails sticking in your butt along with 100 people crammed in space for 50 seems overpriced to me).
The BCCI would do well to start upgrading the in stadia facilities of these venues as a priority and follow that up by upgrading the remaining stadiums.
As regards the boring part - unless Australia implode spectacularly or the other teams grow by leaps and bounds over the next 4 years, expect more of the same.
The 2011 tournament gives the "Asian block" a picture perfect opportunity to showcase everything that is right about cricket and the passions of its fans.
It also gives India the unique opportunity to showcase its centrality as a cricketing powerhouse and to match its bluster with its organizing skills.
The onus is on us to make the restore the World Cup to the showcase event it is; to restore the flagging interest in the multitude of viewers and to put the "mega" back in the mega event.
"We may be the richest Board in the world and yet may have one of the less influential teams in the world, but by Jove, we know how to put on a show " should be the guiding light for the BCCI.
Trivialities like "no confidence motions" against all and sundry can wait.
Speaking of which - my initial reaction was "bit rich of the Board, whose own workings veer between bad and terrible , to pontificate on the ICC's workings".
Thing is, being imperfect is no impediment to being critical of the other. I only wish that the BCCI, while pontificating on the "excessive bureaucracy" of the ICC, had an alternate plan or blueprint in hand to address the situation.
It is all fine and dandy to criticize, but it would help if that criticism was accompanied by something constructive, instead of
Lalit Modi, the BCCI's vice-president, who called on Speed to be replaced by someone from Africa or Asia who "understands the problems of a majority of ICC members".which is no plan at all.
(Cross posted on DesiCritics.org)
9 comments:
Homer,
I have a problem dude - how can you neglect the city with the most knowledgeable cricket crowd that appreciates both the Indian team and the opposition??!!??$%#$##@#@
Homer, that comment by Modi is absolutely disastrous. The last thing the cricket world needs is more bloody color lines being drawn.
Any four cities Prabu.. take your pick :).
But I do hope that the WC organizers dont stretch it and award matches to every center in the country..That will make the WC 2007 look like an absolutely well organized and well run tourney.
Cheers
Samir,
Did we expect anything better from Mr Modi?
Prabu, ofcourse, Chennai is not India. They dont speak Hindi there. Anyone who doesnt speak Hindi isn't Indian. Didnt you know that? And a city that is full of such people? How can you even imagine that such a city can be given the honour of a WC match? These tams - Crazy guys yaar!Kya bakwaas log - hindi bol nahin sakte!
Raj,
Educate me - what is the logic behind the argument?
And how did the choice of cities ( mine entirely and open to debate) translate to Anti Indian sentiments and such like?
Homer, okay, let me know the logic of excluding Chennai from your list. No cricketing reason could be advanced for that - you may say my personal prerogative - if so, what personal prerogative - what makes you exclude chennai?
And while on that, can you or can you not state unequivocally that "Knowing Hindi is not a necessity for an Indian" . And the oft-qutoed incorrect argument that "Hindi is our national language" - do you believe in that?
You see, calling someone black monkey is explicit racism/parochialism. But subtle digs such as this - exluding the one city/stadium/cricket culture known for its a) Cricket knowledge b) Sporting behaviour c) excellent facilities from your list - it surely cannot be for cricketing reasons? And thats where subtle biases come to picture - you may not realise it but you sure have got something against Chennai. Also, when prabu pointed out, you were not gracious enough to acknowledge explicitly that he was talking about Chennai(you just said "any 4 cities your pick "thereby conveniently not acknowledging that he was referring to Chennai-ofcours, it doesnt need your ack because it is obvious when we talk of sporting crowds in India, it cannot be any other City)
We could argue on and on but you answer to yourself if you believe that Hindi is superior to all other languages rhetoric and then you can examine your irritaiton against on-Hindi speaking cities.
Kolkata comes close but they are not such known anti-Hindi rabids as Chennai so you cannot say I included Kolkata hence i am not a hindi-biased person.
Raj,
I wish my thinking was that deep :).
But seriously, here is why I mentioned 4 cities - if there is any hint of bias, I apologize.
The basic premise was to limit the number of venues to a manageable number - 4 in my case; all too often we go crazy with the number of venues for a particular series/tourney.
Mumbai is going to host the finals, Kolkata, one of the semi finals.
That left two more cities to be picked - Mohali was one because of the facilities.
That left one more venue.
Could have been Chennai, could have been Kochi - both venues with the capability of hosting international games and with the infrastructure to accommodate the influx of cricket tourists.
Ditto Bangalore.
I picked Bangalore because I have been to the city and therefore am more familiar with it than Chennai or Kochi.
Now, how that dovetails with "And while on that, can you or can you not state unequivocally that "Knowing Hindi is not a necessity for an Indian" . And the oft-qutoed incorrect argument that "Hindi is our national language" - do you believe in that?" beats me.
Cheers
My goodness!! Never knew people could be so offended just by leaving out a city from a mere blog-report!!!
And the psycho-analysis and coming to the conclusions is simply mind-boggling!
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