The idea is bizarre in the first place. At a time when sports and games are about to discard the last vestige of elitism the world over, the apparition of Hitler has surfaced in no other game than in what is dubbed gentleman's game -cricket. The Board of Control for Cricket in India, Cricket Australia and the England and Wales Cricket Board have mooted an idea aimed at grabbing monopoly power for controlling the game and creating a two-tier 10 Test-playing club, with the privileged status reserved for those three teams. According to the proposal, these three teams could not be relegated to the second division. Under the plan, the future tour programme (FTP) agreed earlier compelling the 10 Test nations to play each other will have no validity at all.
A proponent of the racial superiority of the Aryans over others -Blacks, Mongoloid or Slav, Hitler was humiliated when Jesse Owens won four track and field gold medals to emerge as the most successful athlete at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Owens thus not only sealed his place in Olympic history but also proved the myth of racial superiority. Now here is yet another notorious manoeuvring on the part of the wealthiest three cricket boards to put forward a theory of a different kind of superiority on the basis of purely commercial consideration. This commercial mentality has been reflected further in the 'nuclear option', as advanced by the wealthiest of all boards, the BCCI which generates about 80 per cent of the International Cricket Council's global revenue. According to its proposal, it will reserve the right to withdraw from all ICC events. This is audacious.
Sports and games do not survive merely on finance; rather they survive on their spirit which is in effect their soul. Today the Olympics and World Championships rarely discriminate against athletes. Had they done, the world would not possibly have a Usain Bolt and a Fraser-Pryce -both hailing from island nation Jamaica -as the fastest man and woman on this planet. Commerce is good as long as it does not spoil the spirit that has inspired young men and women to go higher, faster and further or acquire skills and deft touches in order to excel in various disciplines. Games and sports have universal appeal because at their highly celebrated form they are awe-inspiring and yet embedded in euphoric entertainment. They are exulting because they satisfy charged emotion and passion in human bosoms.
What the big three are planning is logically flawed too. Understandably, they think members like Bangladesh will have to earn the right to challenge the elite teams after they have competed with the associate members and made a statement for themselves. This might do them more harms than good because if they cannot pit their mettle against the big Test teams, they will simply unlearn the trade of facing the stronger teams. The emergence of Afghanistan or of the West Indies in the early days of cricket point to something opposite to what they are out to propagate. Even Sri Lanka, now no less a match for any cricketing powerhouse, have proved that the cricketing island nation had to struggle initially. India did so.
An elite club comprising Australia, England and India is a devious notion on yet another count. Right now South Africa is recognised as the number one Test nation. It won the Test series against India on home soil. But before that it had to suffer reversal against Pakistan in Dubai. England suffered a whitewash against the Aussies in Australia. India will have to play at home for maintaining top ranking. Its record abroad is not enviable. So, nothing is conclusive in the game of cricket. Home soil and many other factors are responsible for the ups and downs the Test-playing nations have to go through. And that indeed is the spice of the game. Uncertainty is its hallmark and the minnows at times bring down the Goliaths like David did. When a game holds in it so much suspense, why want to strangulate its spirit simply on consideration of its finance?
Rather, the earlier initiatives to spread cricket on uncharted territories should be provided further momentum. Who knows Afghanistan will not win the world championship in the one-day version? Then it will as well achieve a Test status and beat any of the members of the 10-member elite panel. Even the vision should not be confined to one or two associate members which have already proved their ability to play almost at the top order. Better it would be to concentrate on transforming the game into a global game. To that end, introduction of the game to China and the United States of America is only a logical step. How about such a move when either of the limited versions can be included in the Olympics?
In China, now the second wealthiest nation, the game is gaining popularity. The USA is yet to catch up with the cricket fever but its shortest version surely has a chance to gain ground on that soil if the diaspora from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh take the initiative like their counterparts in Canada did. Attaining maturity in cricket is dependent on how the entire process is developed as a sporting culture. It takes time to infuse the artery of that culture with fresh blood all through over a long period. Have patience!
nilratanhalder2000@yahoo.com
A devious move to take life out of cricket
Nilratan Halder | Published: January 31, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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