In a few hours from now, we’ll know if Gautam Gambhir’s name appears on the Indian team sheet for the Fourth Test, starting today in Nagpur, in defiance of a one-match ban handed down by the International Cricket Council this week.
If the Indian opener, with the backing of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, does decide to play, then the Australian team ought to pack its bags forthwith and head home. No compromise, no debate, no argument: just pack the flannels, polishable shoes and Australian blazer and take the nearest taxi to Nagpur airport.
Nothing can excuse the increasingly overbearing and erratic behaviour of the BCCI which is threatening to undermine the International Cricket Council and the impartial way in which the sport is governed globally. The Indians are becoming a law unto themselves. If they don’t like a decision against one of their players – witness the commotion and threats when Harbajhan Singh was facing a suspension in Australia last summer – they threaten reprisals until they get their way.
Such is the BCCI’s financial clout these days that the ICC is finding it increasingly difficult to bring this cashed-up tinpot dictator to heel. The Indian Premier League has already caused a seismic shaking of the game’s foundations, with Sri Lanka’s tour to England next year called off because their players want to get their fill of IPL’s Twenty20 booty, rather than represent their country in Test cricket.
There can be no doubt Gambhir elbowed Shane Watson during the last Test – millions saw it on television. He has priors, as well, doing the same thing to Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi, an offence for which he was fined. Now he has been banned, and so he should be.
Even if Gambhir abides by the one-match penalty, the time has come for a serious review of the game and how it is administered. All the other Test-playing countries should band together and form a united front in dealing with this menace. And it would help if the respective players’ associations, insipid and mealy-mouthed until now, took a stand that worked for the long-term benefit of the sport which made their members relevant, rather than defended the avarice, rapacity and greed which is now driving cricket and certain, in the end, to bring it undone.
2 Comments
Somehat unusually, I found myself in complete agreement with your views here.
We simply cannot allow the BCCI to dictate terms to the ICC as it appears to be doing – and with impunity.
Frankly, Gambhir’s one-match suspension was a cop out – it should have been accompanied with the threat of a full year’s suspension for the next offence. Three strikes and you’re out.
Music to my ears, Paganini. Indeed, a virtuoso performance. I see that the Indians backed down on their Gambhir threats in the end but, mark my words, it is just the first of many such flashpoints. Unless commonsense prevails …