The new ‘Lords’ of cricket

Only way to counter bigger forces in the game is by strengthening base of cricket, capitalising on passion for cricket

The two-day Dubai ‘Test’ was not played on a placid, benign track, the administrators of the game were in fine form, arguing, slandering and contradicting each other, the governing body of the game, the International Cricket Council (ICC) also painted a sorry picture. Not often is it seen that claims of ‘unanimous support’ are contradicted within minutes by the members of a body, and clearly, the ICC’s reputation was scathed after Pakistan, South Africa, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka denied that there was any unanimity whatsoever over the proposals presented during the ICC meeting on January 28-29.

Bangladesh though has softened its stance on the guarantee of retention of their Test status, so the onus of curbing the powers of the ‘Big Three’ boards — Cricket Australia (CA), the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) — is totally on the remaining three ‘smaller’ powers.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has some important decisions to make and the withdrawal of the government’s appeal against Zaka Ashraf was welcomed by the board supremo; yet, he is still to get an audience with the prime minister, the new patron of the PCB. In Dubai, Ashraf told the ICC executive board that he would be meeting the PCB governing body before taking a final decision on the position paper presented by the Big Three; one hopes he would also seek the advice of former ICC president, Pakistan’s very own Ehsan Mani, whose own counter paper drew accolades from all around the world; yet to date, the PCB has not bothered to contact Mani.

With only a few days to go before the decisive meeting and the ICC a vote away from implementing the ‘principles agreed upon’, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka have to collectively chalk out a strategy to ensure that the game of cricket is not lorded over by the ambitions of mere money-driven administrators. For Pakistan though, the equation is pretty complex, the PCB is still largely unstable with the chairman still unsure as to how long his tenure will last. Most of the prominent members of the PCB’s governing body have opted out of the two sessions that Ashraf has chaired, which indicates that the confidence is not necessarily skyrocketing for the chairman and co.

So far, Ashraf has trumpeted the stance that Pakistan’s interests are paramount, but that is exactly the approach that the Big Three have adopted too. The leading powers appear to have their own interests dear to them, rather than sustenance and development of the game among Test playing nations and beyond. The current situation reminds one of street cricket in Pakistan, where the kid owning the bat and ball often runs away with the equipment at the end of his batting turn!

Many pundits feel that the reforms presented by the BCCI, the ECB and CA would eventually contradict the ICC’s age-old rant that the primacy of Test cricket is above all. The longest format of the game is also set to take a big hit with the commercially viable Twenty20 cricket a la the Indian Premier League taking an even more prominent slot in the years ahead.

While at present, the PCB has adopted a non-compromising stance, the fact is that there is little to bargain for. The inability to host international cricket weakens Pakistan’s stance and the ICC grants are thus extremely important for sustaining the cost incurred on domestic cricket. But adversity often brings with it opportunity. The cricket administrators in the country must pull up their socks. The product that they sell is the national team. The only way to counter the bigger forces in the game is by strengthening the base of cricket and capitalising on the passion for cricket that resonates around the country. We can’t be confined to mere firefighting anymore. Are people at the helm even thinking along these lines?

Published in The Express Tribune, February 6^th,  2014.

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