The International Cricket Council (ICC) has set March 12, 2008 as the qualification deadline for the top eight teams for the Champions Trophy to be held in Pakistan in September this year, an ICC official told Daily Times here on Thursday.and this
CRICKET Australia would face a player revolt if it agreed to tour Pakistan next month.
The last Test Australia played in Pakistan was this one. In 1998/99.
Given their reluctance to tour Pakistan this time around, I wonder what stance the ICC will take if CA expresses a similar reluctance when the Champions Trophy comes around?
PS:- On a tangential note, for all the carping around of the Indians undermining the authority of the ICC, here is something to consider -Australia did not tour Zimbabwe despite being required to do so under the FTP.
AUSTRALIA has postponed a two-Test series against Bangladesh because it clashes with the Beijing Olympics.
The current Australia tour to Pakistan is in jeopardy.
So, Australia has canceled, is canceling or is postponing scheduled tours with 3 of the remaining 9 Test playing nations despite being required to do so under the FTP.
And then there was the "request" to reduce the number of tests with India this October by 1. And the proposal to play a 6 test Ashes series with England.
So, I ask you, who is showing the ICC the finger now?
16 comments:
This notion of eroding the power of the ICC is a bit of a misconceived one. The ICC is just an aggregration of its own members. The very members that it's supposed to administer. I find it difficult to see how its "authority" can ever be real. It's a bit like the United Nations actually.
By the way, just came across your blog. Good stuff.
i just dont understand what they are upto...they can play when bomb blasted not far off from ground in england...but they dont feel 'safe' in pak...
the cancellation of bangladesh tour is also a classic example of that they have completely lost it...
and meanwhile ICC is doing what they do best...playing ostrich i.e.
Agree with Yatharth. In fact, to take the UN analogy further, why not consider an equivalent of the Security Counsel - a reflection of cricket realpolitik, with veto powers to each of the "powerful" members. Now that would be governance. If not, it would at least be fun to watch.
yatharth,
Thanks for your comment and your kind words.
The point I am trying to make is, that for all the breast beating about India being the 800 pound gorilla in the room, every team affiliated with the ICC tries to leverage its gains, often at the expense of the ICC.
And what ticks me off is the moral high ground taken to berate India for all acts of omission and commission - fact of the matter is that all ICC affiliates do it, in some form or the other.
Cheers
SP,
The ICC has been playing ostrich for the longest time now and if the World Cup debacle did not change anything, dont expect anything to change anytime soon.
Cheers
John,
Do you expect any work to be done given that each of the members will be busy vetoing each other :)
Cheers
The ICC cannot be blamed for countries refusing to tour on political grounds.
In almost any enterprise money equates to power and politics influences how the money is spent.
If Australia or any country for political reasons instructs its board to withdraw from the tour what can the ICC be expected to do. If a board however independently decides to not honor tour commitments then fines can be imposed and the ICC does that.
If a John Howard decides to make a political statement through the game of cricket, it should be debated as any other political decision is debated. Public sentiment and short term political gains drive most political decisions and to rationalize all such decisions over a period of time is futile.
Leave politics to the politicians and cricket to ICC.
Aussies do get away with a lot of things....there is no doubt about it...
I believe i said this a while ago, and i stand by it.
Amen to that Golandaaz
The sporting spirit,
Thanks for your comments.
It is not juts India and Australia alone that get away with it, everyone who constitutes the ICC have, at some point or the other, used and abused it.
My point is simply that India gets blamed for every act of omission or commission of the ICC, whether justified or not.
Cheers
Uncle J,
Does that explain all the bad press India gets every time the ICC screws up?
Cheers
I was listening to BBC in the background through the night yesterday as I blogged and browsed. Mohammed al Fayed apparently appeared in court and made a statement. I wasn't watching the TV but was hearing the newsreader tell us about it. Thus, I ended up more tuned to the inflections of voice and choice of words used...a far more sophisticated nudging towards a particular viewpoint than the clumsy overtness of cricket's own version of nudging towards a particular viewpoint. Rugby masters would have been proud of the forcefulness involved in scripting this great cricketing myth. I endured it at BBC's 606 a while back....going by the tone there, BCCI had the singlehanded power in its pocket to switch the positions of various stars in our familiar nightly firmament. Quantum phycisits would scoff at such versions of universe's malleability at the hands of mere godplayers, but they are few such scientists seen on cricket fields, and in the throngs, for which sporting spin doctors cater to.
Off topic: I await a Duleep Trophy finals review :)
lol SB.. If only the BCCI were aware of its own immense powers, no one would have messed with the Indian players the way the match referees have been going at it for all these years :)
SB,
Havent been clued on to the cricket much - my sleep patterns are all over the place these days :)
Cheers
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