At least on BCC! as of today...
Posted a blog on Bored in defense of Lalit Modi. I post my blog and move on to the Indian news TV websites and what do I see ?
I see a story about one of my favorites talking about the issue. Sharp tongued Bishen Bedi lashing it out on the whole BCCI & IPL establishement.
Going by what the acerbic Paaji has said in the interview, it looks like Angad wouldn't be back for the next IPL season.
Keep talking sir !! We love you talking
The debate rages on, the latest to join the issue is Shashank Manohar, chief of the BCCI. While he has not said anything about what BCCI’s answer would be to the Sports Ministry, he has said they would discuss about the issue with ICC.
May be he could have made the lives of the journo's simple had he said, “Let me discuss that with Sharad Pawar and come back”
Going back to the January of 2009, it was the ICC which had approved and implemented the WADA regulations. I am not sure if a single official at ICC could take a unilateral decision to sign the regulations. For, the ICC is supposedly a council. Hence it wouldn't be wrong if one assumed that the decisions must be consensual.
The Indian board and all the other “little lambs” that are following the BCCI today had time till July ’09 to think about WADA. To read, re-read, evaluate & re-evaluate the merits and demerits. The BCCI woke up after August 01, 2009, that was when the “Whereabouts” clause was to be implemented. That too after a couple of holy cows moo-ed.
The worst thing is that NADA, the National Anti-doping Agency of India has been writing to BCCI to know what their response / opinion / view on doping and WADA regulations are, but the BCCI has not been responding.
BCCI’s holier than thou behaviour could be justified by saying that they are not answerable to the government or any governmental agency, they are a private co-operative society after all. But when it comes to upholding the integrity of the game, when it comes to guarding the spirit of sportsmanship the BCCI should have answered.
Add this to the BCCI’s rhetoric of starting their own dope control agency which I am sure has not even seen a pen and paper, it makes one whine. I am sure the BCCI can get away with murder in India, because they are not dependent on the government and they are cash rich but the other “little lambs” that want to follow this Mary today would have to herd back to their respective farms once their governments wink on this issue.
So it wouldn’t be long before the BCCI is left orphaned with an immoral cause.
This is the latest of the series of million dollar questions about WADA. There have been a million of these questions in the last couple of months. This one assumes some importance as there have not been any WADA questions for a while now. And some of us know the fact that the BCCI is a private co-operative society and not a government controlled sports body.
So why should WADA speak to the government, when the GoI doesn’t control the BCCI ?
Don't they know BCCI is not controlled by the Indian government ?
What will WADA achieve by speaking to the GoI about cricket ?
Is WADA bureaucratic in its ways ?
Two reasons why WADA could have spoken to the government
1. To assess the kind of interest the Government of India has in getting rid of doping from sports. There have been far too many voices against the “Whereabouts” clause, but most notably there was one voice of support, that of the Union minister of Sports, MS Gill.
We still don't know if it were his private opinion or the governments. There has not been a declared GoI position on the whole issue. So may be WADA wanted an official word on their position
2. The most important reason, if cricket gets to the Olympics then it would be the GoI & IOC who would be responsible for the Indian cricket team.
So what happens to the BCCI and its selection panel ?
The BCCI would select and recommend a team to the IOC and then the IOC & the GoI would get them to the Olympics.
So whenever that happens, the cricketers too must conform to the Olympic spirit and standards
Therefore what WADA have done is not at all surprising. They have done the right thing in speaking to the Sports Ministry who in turn control the local anti-doping agency NADA in India.
So if there is any such thing called an Indian dope control standard, it has to be the NADA which would govern it till the BCCI decides to give life and unleash the paper tiger of having its own dope control agency.
Let us not forget a key fact, WADA is just an enabler...
A key to shut the arena of sports away from the menace called doping. To offer a level playing field for the sportsmen & women around the world. The moment they become bureaucratic in their ways, the whole reason of their existance would be comprimised. As a responsible body, I am sure WADA is aware of this fact and would make sure they never get there.
The WADA story keeps floating up and down the sports headlines for the last couple of months. Most of the Indians and the cricketing community didn’t know the difference between this WADA and the one sandwiched between a Pav. Suddenly every Tom, Dick and Hari is speaking about it.
There are some people who subscribed to WADA initially who have now woken up rejuvenated once they heard that the Indian cricket board is against it. Agreed FIFA is in two minds but, most of the other game chiefs are in agreement that the arena of sports and sportspeople in particular should be clean.
The simple reason why...
Because they are role models for the youngsters, The Gen X, Y & Z
There was a report in the Guardian recently about this. Before dissecting the content of the report, let us remind the goodfellas at the Guardian that the Indian Premier League has still not spoken anything about the WADA regulations. Simply because of the reason that the IPL is regulated by the BCCI.
It was the BCCI and its cricketers who are against WADA.
According to this report the Professional Players Association which represents players, including those who play cricket (??) have spoken about two things.
1. The “Whereabouts” clause
2. Recreational drugs
In this post let us not talk about the “Whereabouts” clause.
Let’s see what the Professionals / Role models say about the recreational drugs.
“Don’t ban our players for a longer duration if they took recreational drugs”
Discipline – That is the most important trait a sportsperson / soldier should have. I have never known of a disciplined drug addict. Once a sportsperson decides to take recreational drugs, he / she is no more disciplined and therefore I wouldn’t want this person to be someone who influences my kids.
If these are recreational drugs that warrant such light punishments, then why do governments world over have a fleet of gadgets, dogs & people going after the so called recreational stuff ?
Why are they outlawed ?
Why are some South American governments hell bent on losing sleep and men fighting cartels ?
I wouldn’t want a drug addict’s poster on my son’s bedroom wall…
Would you ??
I wouldn’t want him ape an addict the way he walks, talks and plays…
Would you ???
However recreational the drugs that fella took might be
The last week was hectic, everyone spoke. There was no action but speech, excluding Harbajan.
Every cricketer you could imagine spoke about the state of 50 overs cricket, except of course the gentlemen from the Westindies. They were debating about the survival of cricket - the game. They would continue to, till Floyd Riefer leads his grandchildren against Afghanistan in a world cup that would be hosted by Vanuatu some 25 or so years from now.
Cutting the long prelude short. Let us firstly, thank Sachin for the proposal.
Thinking about it The Twelfth man got the sparkly idea of the century, something that would revive the great game of ODI cricket. Something that would extricate the game from the beaks of a vulture called T20.
Let’s jump straight to the brilliant idea.
Each team would play 2 innings. Each inning would be of 25 overs
The batting team, before commencing its first inning would declare their set of 6 players who would bat. The innings would come to close at the fall of 5 wickets or 25 overs whichever occurs first.
The notout batsman along with the remaining 5 would bat in the second innings.
So each team would have a total of 10 wickets to lose in the match and one player who would be the notout batsman in the first innings of each team gets to bat in the second innings too.
Each innings would have two powerplays, of 5 overs each. The first 5 overs and another 5 overs which the bowling captain could enforce anytime during the 25 overs.
Now for the bowling…
The team bowling would select its 4 bowlers who would bowl in the innings. 3 would bowl 7 overs and the other 4 . The bowlers who bowled in the first inning can’t bowl in the second. This means each team would have 8 bowlers.
To make things a level playing field and give some advantage to the bowlers, we would allow 25 bouncers an innings. The teams can decide to bowl all 25 in the trot or leave it to its bowlers to decide when to bowl them. So the game becomes much more competitive and balanced.
This version would be much more balanced than a blind 25 overs each innings cricket. There again inequality would creep in, it would become the game of your best batsmen and the bowlers. So ideally you can have 5 batsmen, 5 bowlers and a wicketkeeper who can bat. That would drive you home.
In the format we are proposing, we cut all these shortcuts off.
ICC… BCCI and the other powers to be… Are you guys listening ??
Don’t forget to pay The Twelfth man his due before you steal this idea !!
Thank you Thambi… I had to time you out !!
They got a Khufia Baaz, Jatman, Che...
Then, they got an interview done with the communications director of WADA.
Now see who they have got ?
A professor who delights us with the way cricket was those days, or rather his days !!
Can't imagine what they would do tomorrow, these chaps at BCC!... Can you ?
WADA, the World Anti Doping Agency spoke to us at Bored. Too much dope about anti-dope across media and too many interpretations of what WADA & "Whereabouts" stand for, our objective was to clear the air up.
And that is precisely what Ms. Julie Masse, WADA's Communications Director did, speaking to yours truly
Is it ??
Can you call an India - Pakistan encounter a warm-up game ??
Would you ??
This debate of "Is it ? Is it not ?" would go on for hours.
For this and more on the match, as it progresses Bored Cricket Crazy Indians have a fantastic plan or should I say platform ?
Yes, it is bigger and better than that mundane score card you see online.
Why only Online ? It's even bigger than watching the match on TV.
Imagine a comment you made about that stupid shot Sehwag or Afridi played being heard by a huge bunch of cricket lovers from all around the world ?
Imagine your small comment triggering a cracker of a discussion ?
Now tell me... Do you want this match to be just another warm-up ?
Or, would you want to join us in our virtual stadia and play along live ??
Do join the Twelfth man and the other "able" men from BCC! this evening !!
As I was flipping on my bed trying to catch some sleep after a "full" sake dinner, I could hear my inner voice. The fact that I had one glass too many of sake made me hear my inner voice loud and clear.
It was unhappy, unhappy because I am the one blogger left in this world who hasn’t spoken / written about something called the "Subprime crisis", too bad. I have been hearing people at the golf course, pubs, office coffee machine, lunches, dinners, malls and so on. People who were speaking about Subprime, Lehman Brothers, Merrill lynch etc.
I remember one very economics & finance savvy gentleman talking about how his favorite Mac has gone bankrupt and how it was lucky to be bankrolled by the Fed Authority because they didn’t want the Mac's to be dead!!, little did he know the difference between the Mac as in burgers and the Mac as in mortgages. With all this action happening around, I didn’t want to be left out.
And here is my two bit about subprime.
I think post the real estate & financial markets the phenomenon of subprime is going to hit cricket, precisely the IPL. One might wonder how?!!
It is pretty simple, to understand this one should understand the basics of what subprime crisis means.
It started with giving a loan / mortgage to a person who doesn’t deserve it and then the lending agencies inability to recollect the money. In other words, a mortgage or loan given to a person whose credit rating is not good enough which doesn't repay the lender. Now what connection does this have with cricket?
Recently 13 players from Bangladesh have gone and joined ICL, a huge exodus of talent for a small country like Bangladesh. Big Brother, oops!! BCCI announced that they would take care of this by getting more Bangladeshi players in the next IPL auction.
We all know where Bangladesh's cricket credit rating stood before the exodus, more precisely the T20 rating. Now with talent gone, let us close our eyes for a minute and try and think where and how their cricket credit rating would stand now. And now a Freddie Mac or a Fannie May (the BCCI / ICL) is trying to finance them (by taking more of them in the auction).
I was thinking what might happen.
There are two scenarios,
1. As usual it might just be a BCCI / IPL rhetoric and nothing might happen
2. They might go ahead and take more of the Bangladesh players to the auction
If they indeed take more players from Bangladesh, then there is a potential opportunity for us to see a cricket subprime. If you remember the definition of subprime, undeserving or uninteresting people getting money is what caused the subprime.
With Srilankan cricket allowing ICL cricketers to play domestic cricket there, if a couple of more boards follow suit then there is a good enough probability of talent (read people with good credit rating) drifting the other side. If this happens, then going by the financial precedent, gone would be the IPL & BCCI.
I am not sure if there is any federal setup equivalent in cricket, even if we (mistakenly) consider that ICC is one then I am not sure if they would want to bail the Big Brother out.
As many, I am a big fan of the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) for its ability to issue amusingly brilliant and quixotic diktats about people playing / representing ICL (Indian Cricket League) organised by the Essel Group.
We already know that BCCI has banned the players, budding, present and former representing ICL from taking part in any BCCI (and ICC) sponsored events. Here are some more diktat ideas for the BCCI to crush ICL to dust.
1. Nobody, TV, Press or Web can cover the ICL. If someone dares to then they wouldn’t be allowed to cover (why cover, even inside the venue) any BCCI sponsored event. They would be banned for life
2. The photographers who took part in the ICL sponsored photoshoot are banned for from shooting any BCCI sponsored event, players or families
3. The brand of the equipments used by the photographers of the ICL shoot is banned for life from sponsoring, supplying and being present in any manner in any BCCI sponsored event
4. Viewers watching ICL matches live on TV sets would be banned for life from watching BCCI sponsored matches on TV (BCCI has the Pawar and authority to seek and destroy those TV sets). Those watching highlights would be banned from watching BCCI sponsored events for 5 years
5. People who go to the stadium to watch the ICL matches would be banned for life from watching, buying tickets or being present in any area that is 5km radius from a stadium where a BCCI sponsored event is being held
6. The supplier of cricket balls for the ICL matches cannot henceforth supply either match or practice balls for any BCCI sponsored event or team. They would be banned for life
7. The cricketing equipment manufacturers whose equipments are used by the ICL contracted players would henceforth be banned for life from supplying equipment for the BCCI sponsored players, academies or events
8. The grass supplier who laid the turf in the stadia used by ICL for their practice or matches is banned for life. They henceforth can't either supply grass, water grass or undertake maintainance work in any of the BCCI sponsored pitches, lawns and meadows
9. The advertising agency which worked on the ICL branding and publicity is henceforth banned for life from doing any work for BCCI or any of its affiliates. It is futher stated that clients handled by this agency or its sister concern cannnot be present in any of the BCCI sponsored events unless they issue a public apology for being with the above said agency and severe all their relations with the agency with immediate effect
10. It is reported that a college in Chennai has allowed ICL to use their facilities for practice, this is unacceptable and unpardonable according to the bylaws of BCCI. Henceforth any student, old or new and staff from that college in Chennai would be banned for life from taking part in any BCCI sponsored event. However relief would be granted for those who severe their connections with the institution by either resigning or tearing their certificates issued by the college. These people can return back to the BCCI fold provided they write "BCCI is a winner. ICL is always a loser" 2,500 times in the paper provided by BCCI for this purpose
While this list can go on, I stop with 10 points and leave the rest to your imagination. I intend to send the list to the officials of BCCI soon and I am sure they would put these recommendations before a select committee of former Indian captains and implement it at the soonest.
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