BOMBAY — ICC President Malcolm Gray has started a most commendable practice of meeting the various international teams, its officials and members before a Test or one-day series. A meeting like this not only lets the teams know of the work and the initiatives taken by the ICC but it also allows for interaction between the players and the officials. The one major snag that leads to avoidable problems has been the lack of communication between those who play the game and those who administer it and the ICC president’s initiative does go a long way in bridging the communication gap. Most teams have taken this interaction to talk about the problems that are peculiar to that country and it does make for a better understanding of what makes some teams tick and some don’t.
Having met the Australian, South African and New Zealand teams before the triangular series in Australia and then the teams playing in the ICC Under-19 Cup, the president took the opportunity of being in New Zealand for an ICC meeting to catch up with the England team. And guess what the team or its officials did ? They whinged about my column. Imagine that, here’s a rare chance to meet with the ICC top brass and apprise them about the cricketing issues that they may have and they just confirm their unbeatable status as whingers. England’s Zimbabwean coach suggested that being on the ICC panel I should have an unbiased opinion and then added a personal remark and while I will not stoop to that level, please remember who started the unnecessary personal reference if anything does happen in the future. Normally I don’t react to the comments of others, as I believe that each is entitled to his or her opinion whether one agrees with those remarks or not and whether they are true or incorrect.
But now having moaned to the ICC president it is about time to nail this canard that is being spread about a ‘conflict of interests’ between my media work and being on the ICC panel.
Nothing that I do in the media both electronic or print comes in the way of my work as the chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee, which in any case meets just once a year. That is a committee that looks at the laws and playing conditions of the game in the main. I am not the only member of the committee and there are more than ten others and a fair sprinkling of them including Allan Border are doing media work. There’s therefore no way it’s a conflict of interests as was confirmed to me by the ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed. There was something he said that delighted me but I won’t go into that here.
The previous evening too, at a convivial dinner the ICC president had remarked about my column which again heartened me and I would suggest to the England coach that he should perhaps check with the Australians, the New Zealanders, the West Indians, the Pakistanis, the Sri Lankans, the Bangladeshis, the South Africans and other Zimbabweans about my comments about their status as whingers and he will then realize that it’s something the whole world has been saying for years and not just me. Who knows before he was appointed coach he may well have had the same views.
He of course very cleverly avoided talking about the instances that led me to make that comment but what is amusing is that when I wrote good things about their cricket, they obviously felt that there was no conflict of interests. When I wrote critical stuff then, viola there was conflict of interests.
The other amusing aspect of the whole thing was the way some in the media in England and the odd one in India tried to suggest that since I was not a destroyer of bowling I should not be writing about the boring aspect of the England team. As usual when they have no argument to fall on they bring out the 36 not out in the first World Cup game forgetting that when I finished my career I had progressed to score the second fastest century in the World Cup till then. Trying to make the case that one has not done the same thing and so should not comment, is an argument that may well explode in their faces for then not having played the game at all apart from at a very low level, the question is, should they be writing at all ?
One more thing that is regularly brought up is the over-rate of the Indian team in the 1981-82 series conveniently forgetting that in the Oval Test in 1979 when India were chasing a target of 438 England bowled at a slovenly rate as soon as they realized they were not going to dismiss us. In fact in the half hour after tea on the last day before the commencement of the 20 mandatory overs they bowled only five overs.
India’s over-rate in 1981-82 was better than that even though slightly but while Brearley was hailed as a master tactician for that, yours truly was made the villain. And let’s not talk about the umpiring in that game either for those were ‘human errors’ by English umpires unlike in the sub-continent when it would have been called ‘cheating’.
So now you see why I look at this entire thing as another example of British humor. I may not be a fan of their cricket but I am a big admirer of their humor. (Professional Management Group)
