Posts Tagged ‘BCCI’

3 results.
Mar29

Out of the frying Pan into the fire

by wasim on March 29th, 2008 at 5:35 am
Posted In: Uncategorized

PCB cleared Rana Naveed and Mushtaq to play county cricket, both the players have been playing in the rogue Indian league ICL, under a previous mutual understanding between the boards and ICC it was decided that players playing in ICL will not be able to play any domestic cricket, although PCB has not allowed its players who opted for ICL to play domestic cricket neither they were given central contracts, but these two players have been given NOC to play county cricket, a move which has irked BCCI and might start a cold war between BCCI and PCB.

To ban players from playing domestic cricket or play overseas in other leagues cannot be morally or legally justified, these players have every right to earn their livelihood, and they should also have a right to play for their country. BCCI very cleverly manipulated all the other boards and ICC by declaring ICL as a big threat to International cricket and the monopoly of these respective organizations, and created a rival league of its own (IPL) with an initial objective of countering the threats posed by ICL and therefore got the blessings and unanimous support of all the other boards and ICC.

 Now when IPL has been created and about to start its first season most of the cricket boards are beginning to realize that they are out of the frying pan and into the fire. IPL is causing the same problems which were initially anticipated from ICL only on a larger scale, almost two months of International Cricket has been eaten up by this league, PCB is struggling to fill up the gaps created by the cancellation of Australian tour,Newzealand is struggling to get its players on board for the English tour, none of the boards is willing to commit its team to a tour which clashes with IPL dates as they know they will not be able to send their A team as all the major players have been cannibalized by these two leagues.

Domestic Cricket in different countries will also get affected as major players will not be available. All the premium players have been pouched by IPL and all the second string players are playing for ICL, this will have serious financial repercussions for the various boards, between the two leagues 3.5 month of International and domestic cricket and the revenues from it will get dried up. If a board will try not to give an NOC to its players for IPL those player will always have the option to join ICL as a result all the boards will be helpless. Its a win win situation for BCCI and Indian cricket and a total loss situation for the rest of the world.

BCCI is the sole beneficiary of all the financial gains from IPL, whereas the rest of the boards are net losers, both IPL and ICL will capture a major chunk of sponsorship and media rights market, these markets in dollar terms have a certain size and their growth is also limited once they are captured by a particular brand or organization it will be hard for other boards to make inroads. A series of miscalculations have been done by the administrators of ICC and different boards.

  1. If the purpose of IPL was to kill ICL then why its dates do not coincide with ICL?
  2. Why a separate Slot was not carved for IPL in the ICC FTP?
  3. Why ICC or other board members do not have a financial and administrative share in IPL? They are sharing their assets i.e players, and sacrificing their revenue from International and domestic cricket during these 44 days they should have been monetarily compensated.
  4. Why isn’t their a clause where ICC is given control to ban players from a particular country to play for IPL if a particular International series is just cancelled because the players of that particular country want to play in IPL?

Its a fact that no International match or series has been delayed, cancelled or postponed due to ICL, all the dangers which were associated with ICL are becoming reality because of IPL, this league has created so many problems for different boards in just two months who knows how many more problems will be created in the years to come.This straining of relations between PCB and BCCI is just the beginning, if this league is not internationally governed and properly regulated ICC will get disintegrated.

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Sep19

Srilanka leads the way

by wasim on September 19th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket Pakistan

Sri Lanka has decided to lift ban on its ICL players the decision will create ripples in the International cricket community and might create a rift in the Asian block if the situation is not resolved.  A few days ago 13 Bangladeshi players joined the rebel league creating a huge crisis for BCB.  PCB is also finding it difficult to stop its players to join the rebel league they might lose their star player Mohammed Yousuf who is expected to announce his decision to join ICL later this month, the situation is catastrophic for Bangladesh as if they continue with the 10 year ban on the rebel players they will find it hard to retain their International status.

Since Pakistan’s International cricket has almost finished for the moment they have no choice but to launch their own domestic leagues and for that matter they would need  their players playing for ICL to make their leagues more attractive, BCCI should support the legitimacy of ICL as there is no other solution for the problem, I think other countries have waited enough and so far BCCI and ICC have done nothing to solve the problem, probably lifting of the bans from the rebel players will make these two entities soften their stance and will force them to actively look for a solution to the problem.

There are indications that PCB will follow the suit as a few weeks ago Shabbir Ahmad was seen practicing at the National academy. There is absolutely no choice for Bangladesh but to revoke the ban as they do not have the talent pool to sustain the exodus of 13 players. I think the time is right for Pakistan to lift the ban, it will deliver a perfect response to ICC for not supporting Pakistan and might also make other cricketing boards to repent over their decisions of not touring Pakistan, the decision will have a wider impact infact if such a decision is made it will legitimize rebel leagues or at least allow them to flourish and will ultimately lead to the demise of ICC and its monopoly over cricket.

PCB has suffered huge losses because of ICC’s failure to make the western block cricketing nations to tour Pakistan, and its highly unlikely that the policies of these countries will change in near future, so if PCB has to survive they will have to start their own leagues they have the Infrastructure they have the talent  they only need to change their business model, they need to offer lucrative contracts to foreign players to attract them, no private league can flourish in Pakistan as most of the stadiums are owned and operated by PCB so PCB has nothing to fear.

Begging and pleading has so far not worked in their favor, when logic fails to work aggression is the best technique its time for PCB to show some aggression its their only choice.

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Feb02

Random thoughts

by wasim on February 2nd, 2012 at 10:27 am
Posted In: Cricket, Cricket Pakistan

Pak- Eng series

English team has been unofficially dethroned from its #1 title, they were completely crushed by Pakistan in the first test match and in the second test Pak spinners just toyed with them and snatched victory from the English team when all of England thought that they had won the match. It was a shocking defeat from which it will be hard for English team to recover. Pakistan has already declared that they desperately want to white wash the series.

English players will be desperate to salvage their pride but it seems that they are missing that extra help which they always enjoy while playing at home against Pakistan, they did tried to start a controversy by raising doubts about Ajmal’s action but the tactic backfired, the English team had to face the wrath of Saeed Ajmal who has been virtually unplayable for their whole team.

There is something special and  mysterious about this Pakistan team , on paper it is perhaps the most unexciting, inexperienced and weak Pakistan team of the last decade but its accomplishments are far better than the best Pak team of the last decade. The players might have a low profile but they are certainly not low on skill, spirit or integrity, they have a workman like attitude after a very long time we are seeing a Pakistani team which is playing like a unit, all the  jealousy, venom, glitz, glamour , scandals and super inflated egos have disappeared with a few changes in the management and a few changes in the team.

The fans are also beginning to learn to appreciate these type of players who seem to struggle through out the match to perform but in the end deliver enough  for their side to win, unlike some of the past players who would show their class in patches but would never deliver enough in a match that would make the team win, they had a tendency to make a free fall from hero to zero within an innings. I am glad we got rid of those mercurial players who earned such a bad reputation for the team and the country.

Inconclusive third umpires

ICC will have to take a strong action against third umpires who are visibly trying to take advantage of this “inconclusive evidence clause”, during this series there were at least three incidents where wrong judgement was passed because the third umpire declared that the evidence was inconclusive, on all three occasions it was only the third umpire who was inconclusive all the commentators and viewers thought otherwise. DRS is an expensive technology and is being installed to control the umpiring bias and judgement errors but if the umpires with all the technological help are still not going to effect the outcome of a match by giving wrong judgements then there is no point in having a third umpire and the DRS, the on field umpires can do this job easily.

Indian humiliation

I think the time has come for Dravid, Laxman and Sachin to retire, BCCI in my opinion has already over stretched their careers by at least two years. No doubt these players still pull huge crowds, BCCI has cashed their Iconic value in shape of gate money and expensive sponsorship contracts for years now these players are just a shadow of their past, and it is high time that they should make way for youngsters and let the fans enjoy exciting cricket.

India has suffered a white wash in its last two series, historically it is their bowling which fails them but this time around they could neither bowl nor bat. Batting has always been a strength of India but too much T20 cricket and the stubbornness of BCCI to prepare flattest tracks in the world for its home series over the last 10 years have gradually taken its toll on the skill level of Indian players. For the longest time Indians have been in denial about their bowling because their batsmen saved the day in the end, they are clueless as to why they have been unable to produce quality fast bowlers like other great cricketing nations, the answer is simple – dead Indian pitches, they usually are a grave yard for fast bowlers.

BCCI will have to cut down on T20′s and improve the standard of  home tracks if they want to maintain the standard of cricket in India.

Mohsin Khan Vs Dave Whatmore

PCB has hired Dave Whatmore  as the national coach. I have always been against foreign coaches, I don’t think that Dave has more cricketing knowledge or experience than Mohsin Khan. Mohsin’s experience is vast as compared to Whatmore, Mohsin has played 48 tests and 75 Odis in comparison to Dav’s 7 tests and just 1 ODI. Dav does have considerable coaching experience but I don’t think Pakistan team needs a foreign coach at this level. Mohsin has performed reasonably well as a chief selector, I wouldn’t give him the credit of the recent victories as a coach as much of the work with this team was done by Waqar Younis. If anybody really deserves to be the longterm coach of Pakistan it is Mudassar Nazar who in my opinion  solely deserves the credit of creating  Players like Umar Akmal, Mohammad Aamir, Mohammad Talha, Junaid khan, and Ahmad Shahzad and many more. Muddassar was a fine batsman an excellent seam bowler and a good fielder and above all he had the most pleasant personality, very easy to get along with something which all young players need.

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