Realpolitick enters the cricket arena

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And the consequences for the game can potentially prove fatal

As if the once noble modern game was not complicated enough, with its three formats and their different rules, the DRS with its sometimes confusing technology, field umpires, television or third umpires and match referees, Associates and Affiliates, a strange new term now threatens to further cloud the cricketing horizon: The ‘Big Three’ and their ‘Position Paper’ of in effect world dominance of the game.

The ultimate ambition of Hegemony cannot remain hidden for long behind verbal niceties and stated good intentions, whether in the world of geopolitics or of sports, and the startling and sudden move by the trio of, in descending order of mischievousness, India, the United kingdom and Australia, may well be a catalyst to divide the cricketing fraternity in the near future.

By this device, whose purposes and ends are still being debated, the political tools of realpolitick and geopolitics have been let loose in the sporting arena. The consequences for the game can potentially prove fatal in case the power grab goes ahead. What the founder of the theory of ‘geopolitics’, Prof. Karl Haushofer of the University of Munich, meant in other words was that ‘the developed and the powerful could appropriate anything that they found useful for their well-being’. Perhaps this neo-Darwinist mentality was also behind the recent hostile takeover bid of world cricket by the trio. It is indeed true: ‘Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make mad’…

There has always been a streak of politics in the sphere of sports, and in our country, unfortunately a surfeit of it. The 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin under the National Socialists only went ahead because they had been allocated much before 1933, the year Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. The post 1945 Cold War between the Reds and the ‘better dead than red’ camps also left its scars on world sports. The 1980 Moscow Olympics were boycotted by some powers, including the US, for the Soviet Bear’s invasion of Afghanistan, and though in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, there was no bar on black athletes despite the overtly racist policies of the day, in the era of South African apartheid, the selection of coloured cricketer Basil D’ Olivera in an MCC side to tour the Springboks country in 1970-71 led to the cancellation of the tour and South Africa becoming an international pariah.

The so-called ‘Big Three’ are a collection of strange bedfellows indeed united by power and profit. And the way they are going about it, by base bribes, coercion, blackmail and intimidation should make ‘old Nick’, in this instance Nicollo Machiavelli proud.

It is ironic that the once greatest world Empire, and possessing the ‘mother of parliaments’ has now seen fit to team up with a former colony apparently dreaming of being its heir in the region, along with a Dominion mockingly referred to as a ‘nation of convicts’, to throw the cricket world into a totally unnecessary turmoil. The so-called ‘Big Three’ are a collection of strange bedfellows indeed united by power and profit.

And the way they are going about it, by base bribes, coercion, blackmail and intimidation should make ‘old Nick’, in this instance Nicollo Machiavelli proud. For instance, the relegation condition will not apply to the ‘Big Three’ (though India just got a 4-0 hiding from New Zealand and were no great shakes against South Africa either), but are ready to undo the relevant clause altogether if a fearful Sri Lanka or Zimbabwe, who will be the real victims, offer their valuable support (and votes) to the New World Order in Cricket at this stage.

It’s the same old ‘shock and awe’ tactics earlier attempted in the Middle East with disastrous consequences, with two of the original actors also included in this venture.

The Indian mindset with regard to Pakistan is manifest and unmistakable: an implacable enmity on all fronts. This should be clearly evident even to those with tunnel vision by their refusing to play with us even at neutral venues, and their obstinate ban on our cricketers and hockey players in their lucrative and world quality domestic Leagues.

To some this may smack of bigotry, and no one can deny the unbending arrogance in their attitude.

As for the game itself, the Indians have persistently refused to play under the ICC’S DRS umbrella though all the other cricket playing countries have adopted it. True, the review system, still in its infancy, has some flaws but these can be ironed out in time. But to be a ‘lone ranger’ in this matter and going its own way is a pointer not only to their stubborn autocratic streak, but also to their undeniable financial and political clout.

A few here are enthusiastically and eagerly advising the PCB to fall for the bait, bilateral series in neutral venues and permission to play in the IPL for our players, but they can only see the big bucks coming their way and there is a clear conflict of interest involved.

Pakistan of course has never accepted Indian overlordship, and it should oppose these divisive and potentially disastrous proposals of the ‘Big Three’, which are more in the nature of a diktat or an imposed fait accompli. The cricket ball now lies in the courts of the ‘have-beens’ in the new world order and the world’s governing body, the ICC, to prevent the creation of a new axis of evil – in cricket.

What would one give for a Nur Khan at the helm of affairs in Pakistan at such a critical juncture!

4 COMMENTS

  1. There is nothing wrong with the position paper for revamping of the ICC. The countries who contribute more must get returns proportionate to their contribution. Why some countries, like Pakistan, should think that it is their birth right to live off on other's money and tell the world how good they are ????? Pakistanis can not manage their own cricket affairs properly why they should be allowed to ruin the world cricket same way as they have destroyed their own cricket ? What Pakistan has given to world cricket ? Conspiracy theories, Ball tempering, Chuckers, Cheaters and a third class team that looses even to Zimbawe. I see no statements from South Africa and Sri Lankan cricket boards, only Pakistanis seem to be coming out of their skins. Like always, Pakistan will loose its face and changes will go through. Let countries who contribute more and who have better managers of the game take control while countries who have given only controversies be shown the door.

  2. "Pakistan of course has never accepted Indian overlordship, and it should oppose these divisive and potentially disastrous proposals of the ‘Big Three’, which are more in the nature of a diktat or an imposed fait accompli" .
    India needs no certificate from Pakistan to accept its overlordship. Instead of badmouthing India, why don't you tell your PCB to create platforms like IPL or PHF to start a Hockey league ? Aren't you a 200 million strong country and oh yes I forgot a Nuclear Power ???? You want platforms in return for terrorism ????

  3. IPL PHF plagued with match fixing we don't want any thing like that, neither we will accept dictatorship of three countries despite all the problems cricket is better in Pakistan then india. So called Indian heroes seldom win abroad.

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