When initial reports came in about India not playing ball with the ICC's plan of hosting the Champions Trophy in Pakistan in October of 2009, it was played up by the media as Indian intransigence, never mind the fact that the proposed dates clashed with India's series against Australia - a series that was a part of the FTP.
David Hopps, in the Guardian, characterized it thus -
As if providing proof that cricket does not want to listen, on the very day that Trescothick's autobiography was launched, the International Cricket Council was beset by more unsustainable scheduling as India undermined the rescheduled Champions Trophy itinerary for October 2009 with grandiose plans of its own. Greed - of players and administrators - silently eats away at the health of the game and those who play it.It is with this in mind that I read the following article on the Cricinfo website
Chances of the Champions Trophy being held in 2009 appear to be brightening with intense discussions on the issue between ICC officials and those of its member boards over the last few days opening up "2-3 options". One of those options will be finalised when the governing body's executive board meets next month, Cricinfo has learnt.Salient amongst the points made was this
"There is no question that all the boards would like the Champions Trophy to happen," Shah told Cricinfo. "But you can't expect only India to adjust its dates for that. We are willing to look at an adjustment by a few days if everyone else involved is equally flexible."and this
According to the governing body, the "primacy of ICC events was restated" during its board meeting in Dubai on September 11 to discuss the dates, but sources said that an interesting sidelight of the discussions was that no board appeared keen to see the Champions Twenty20 League affected to accommodate the Champions Trophy.But what really made me sit up and take notice was this paragraph
The Indian board may be open to facilitating a window from around September 20-30 by pushing back the dates of the Champions Twenty20 League and the Australia one-day series by a few days. For that to happen, England and Australia will have to tweak the dates of their one-day series, the New Zealand-Sri Lanka engagement has to be looked at and, crucially, the ICC may have to compress the span of its tournament. But while Shah said that "even the ICC has to be flexible", there are no signs of an update from England, where the line of thought within the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) at the moment seems to be that it is a question for the ICC to answer and that "the ball appears to be with others".First, the security excuse.. Now, not a word on rescheduling the Natwest Trophy or revisiting the itinerary. Nothing. Nada.
And they say it is India that is undermining the Champions Trophy!
9 comments:
I quote a fine author -
"The history of cricket is not a simple narrative of statistical records and technical evolution; it is also about social and political relationships in the British empire. There were elaborate rules - some explicit, others unstated - about who was biologically fit to play the game, who was morally suited to the sport, and who might play with whom and against whom. Because the game represented racial, national and gendered identity in imperial society, any use of cricket to alter one's position in the social order represented an overtly political challenge."
I am currently deeply involved in reading this book which reqires all my attention for every word printed in it. Therefore, I'm going over it very slowly.
When I observe you extracting skein by skein, and chronicling, the colonial imperialism from the various camouflaged forms it linegrs in these days, I cannot help but forsee that this blog will one day be a useful thesis on it.
One could easily re-write the above quote from the said author as follows -
"The history of cricket is not a simple narrative of statistical records and technical evolution; it is also about social and political relationships in the British empire. There were elaborate rules - some explicit, others unstated - about who was biologically fit to play the game, who was morally suited to the sport, and who might play with whom and against whom, and to what extent.
Here, one could almost add to update to today's world (seeing also some of the reasons being floated against a candidate in the US elections - and oh, what's going on there subliminally is no different from what is behind such spoutings from "writers" like CMJ and the tabloid authors you have quoted in your article Homer - hence it is relvant to drag O-man's race to the "White House" into this )- Because the game represented racial, religious, national and gendered identity in imperial society, any use of cricket to alter one's position in the social order represented an overtly political challenge."
Homer, India made the "mistake" of "using" cricket to "change" its "position" in the remanants of the "good old social order of the world."
Among other things, India played IPL before us for Chrissakes!
Don't you know the colonial niggers run the Imperial Cricket Council? - if things are allowed to continue as such, there could be one of these in 10 Downing Street before you could spell your name...maybe an Indian Maharaja...!
Such Fear can block out the most intelligent minds there are around.
There are also other unstated issues which could be equated with the class differences and mobility between classes alongside those mentioned above, which is all permissible only to the extent of quaintness...as long as the mobility doesn't overreach itself....in that good old socially ordered structure of how this world should forever be.
Class differences are less overt on an international scale Homer - one would imagine Australia's extended success in cricket would have erased that part from the lingering spirit ofimperialism, colonialism, delusions...call it whatever you like... - but they still exist. There is also a "class apartness" at work these days...internationally and locally.
What is surprising is class apartness can close ranks, the range between white and black can compress itself, when it comes to dealing with shades inbetween and all classes therein.
Here, Homer, I must go back to that wonderful author I'm reading currently and extract another quote from the initial pages itself -
"When it comes to linking leisure to a wider process of historical continuities and disruptions in a specific corner of the empire, CLR James is still exceptional. My own objectives are different from those of James, who described colonial Trinidad and a mid-twentieth-century England where cricket could establish disciplined identities across boundaries of class, race and island/nation. I focus more upon indiscipline than upon its opposite. The Englishness of Indian elites at the turn of the century was informed and undermined by historical specifities that were different from those that influenced Jame's Trinidadians; 'Engilsh' or 'public-school' molds of docile identity cannot bear the weight of this difference. The social and political strategies of a native 'cricketer' in India and England are not restricted to cricket...."
Homer, the Indian is "indisciplined" - he dared to rebel against what are the very fundamentals of that structured society while adopting and assuming them himself!
The native "cricketer" (apostrophe not mine) is a concept which is clanging loud and clear in all the "writings" (apos. mine) you are keeping track of and documenting meticulously. The Board of CCI, a one-time imperial protege and dependent has chosen to live with its identity among the natives to whom it belongs. Of couse the BCCI could assume the imperial colours if it serves to further its cause and become one with the old imperialists of the good old school.
The damn natives "used" cricket in such a mannner that we now have to look up into their eye! That's just not cricket! That's not an ordered world! That's....and so the plaintive cries echo from the distant past
I'm sorry for a long post Homer. I hope I made sense...just that I'm in the grip of this wonderful book currently (consumes all my spare time for it forces me to research as well )and everything fell in place to write this "comment".
My apologies once again...
The indisciplined is more dangerous than the disciplined...he is more likely to knock the crown off your head.
And all of the above can be seen in the Monty story....from both Monty and his "countrymen." He's still quaint....the glass ceiling will come later.
at your arguing best homer!!
Soulberry: full citation please :)
Thanks,
Samir
Samir, it's Migrant Races by Satadru Sen.
Worth a read. Ranji is merely an illustrative metaphor representing one kind of "mover" in the colonial world. He classifies them ayt the outset itself....the more I think about it, I guess the bookwill be better understood by the Indian diaspora around the world.
Homer,
Do you realize you might be approachiong Chomsky levels?
Sp,
Thanks :)
Cheers,
John,
Now I am worried ( and a bit scared)!
Cheers,
SB,
Thanks very much. Will track it down.
Cheers,
Samir
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