Opinion Blaming India is the lazy way out: Harsha Bhogle

There are bigger issues — for a start,due to demographic issues and changing lifestyles,Test cricket is gasping. In the home of Test cricket (and I say this with all respect and no sarcasm) a Test series between the world number 1 and number 2 will be played over three games and a cash rich five match one-day series has been slotted in. Also in England,first-class cricket is being played increasingly in April and May to allow T20 to be played in the middle of summer. In Australia last year home batsmen who were out of form had no four-day cricket to go back to because the Big Bash was on in the middle of the season. It is happening everywhere. The greater issue of concern therefore is whether the same lifestyle changes that saw the death of inland letters and long playing records,that are seeing dangerous shifts in families from living within your means to living off your debt are now encircling Test cricket.

There again India is the enemy. But India is one of nine countries that play Tests. Even if India is the big bad wolf that still leaves 28 encounters not involving them. Surely those should be in the pink of health! But they aren’t. Looking at India is fast becoming the lazy solution,there is a far more critical global problem.

But didn’t the BCCI scuttle the World Test Championship? Now that is an interesting,if inconvenient one. The WTC was not part of the television rights deal and the rights holders who have invested a lot of money,and are not in the business of losing it,suggested that they would recover more from the Champions Trophy than from the WTC. My information is they asked the ICC if they could make the relevant deduction in rights payable and if so,they would be happy to include the WTC. The ICC was unwilling to take that stance,in effect they wanted their share of the rights but wanted someone else to take part of the losses. In business terms that is untenable.

If the ICC and member countries were so committed to the WTC they could have put in the money. As they can with countries that cannot afford the expensive equipment needed for the DRS. So on that count,we now have a situation,agreed to by all,where the richer countries have access to what most believe is better decision making while the poorer nations have to make do with what they have. It was budgets that came in the way of DRS for Sri Lanka versus Pakistan. It is an old issue. The ICC wants television companies to pay.

On DRS itself there is a deeper issue. If the objective is to ensure fairer decision making it should be allowed on every decision,not on one or two. As it stands today it doesn’t eliminate the howler for number 9 or 10 if the two reviews have been used up. The lesser batsmen effectively live in a non-DRS system,we have created a hierarchy,haves and have-nots.

I must admit my own stance on the DRS is a work in progress. I thought it was a good idea but in the three tournaments I saw the most,the World Cup and India vs England and later,Australia,the DRS wasn’t in top form. If it had been a cricketer it would have been dropped. I can see the merits but I am yet to be convinced that it delivers too much more than line calls and pitch maps can. But my point of view is not the issue,the non-India countries can isolate India on this front but they choose not to vote. They too put commerce ahead of conviction.

And then there is the IPL,the plague and AIDS combined,Chenghis Khan and Idi Amin reincarnated,the evil monster that raids countries and steals players and has this stupid clause that requires players to get a no-objection from their home boards! Again if the IPL is so bad,unlike Packer’s WSC which was such a breath of fresh air and re-invigorated world cricket,surely the rest of the world can fence India out. The IPL needs overseas players and will be substantially reduced in stature,might even die,if they don’t play or are not allowed to play. Again,you need to act,not just complain. And I presume asking the IPL to share its time and revenues with other countries was no more than a little aside… like the Premiership sharing its profits with Luxembourg,Belgium and Iceland,the NBA with Honduras,Costa Rica and Cuba…

The truth is,and Tony Greig is both intelligent and shrewd enough to know it,that independant of cultures,civilisations and people,organisations with power behave similarly. Forget global political reality,even in the cricket world,Australia have behaved that way,England have and South Africa have too. (India,for example,were wrong in supporting those that were then running Zimbabwe cricket as England and Australia were wrong in supporting pro-apartheid cricket in South Africa).

The accent that power speaks in is not Gujarati,Midland or Afrikaans. But across cultures and civilisations people have stood up and fought what they perceive to be wrong. If India is indeed wrong,the rest of the world can come together and alienate India. But they don’t. Because they want Indian money but not an Indian point of view. Are they guilty of complicity then?

A disclaimer before I end. I make very little money out of BCCI cricket. In fact in the last few years no more than my good friends Simon Doull and Pommie Mbangwa who join me for the IPL and the Champions League have. Income from BCCI cricket is a small part of my total income and therefore I have no stake,or commercial gain,from the writing of this article. Indeed my stance on many issues,often stated,is at strong variance with that of the BCCI.

I am only writing this because I am disappointed by the ingratitude of world cricket towards the hard-working Indian fan who spends money,braves difficult times and whose enthusiasm survives many ordeals. He,and indeed she,plays a big role in keeping global cricket alive. If Namibia and Bermuda,and indeed Japan and Italy receive assistance,he/she contributes to it. A little occasional thank you might be gracious.

I hope Tony Greig,and some others blessed with equal experience and insight,use their skills to enrich the game as they have in the past. They waste it now by taking the lazy option attacking someone they believe is an opponent. We are too small a game to be caught up and driven astray by an us-and-them attitude.