Ever since that unforgettable Thursday of March 19 this year, and the consequent comment made by former ICC president, Mr Mustafa Kamal, regarding the actual “very unfortunate” game of biased umpiring in the quarter-finals of Bangladesh versus Dar, Gould, and the Indian cricket team, us Bangladeshi cricket lovers have been raging with only one question: Why, India?
The media calls you one of the three wise men of world cricket, your team of mostly misbehaving and arrogant cricketers even managed to win the last World Cup, some of them scored brilliant double centuries in one-day internationals, and your team finally grew some new fingers in the bowling area as well. We fail to understand the need for such politics at this point from you in such a lovely game played by gentlemen. Was it really necessary?
I believe that every single fan of the sacred game watched with utmost disgust and disbelief about how the Indian media started and ended their World Cup campaign with ridiculous “Mauka” (chance) advertisements and the infamous (and now failed) hash tag “#Wewontgiveitback.” Whether you believe it or not, a tsunami of hatred and curses from all these viewers fell heavy on your cricket board and team all throughout this tournament. Was being hated really necessary?
Towards the end of the tournament, a lot of renowned cricket commentators went as far as to tell the media that they could not be in the tournament to give commentaries because BCCI (and in some cases Star Sports as well) made things really hard for them with all their preposterous conditions regarding commenting on the Indian players only. Is BCCI controlling international cricket commentators as well now? How is that possible?
The now former president of ICC, who is a Bangladeshi, went to the length of resigning from his post because BCCI hit ICC too hard with its spiteful corruption. So what was the clear reason behind that resignation?
It is indeed the president of ICC who is always expected to hand over the World Cup to the winning team, but the chairman of ICC (who happens to be the former president of BCCI) and his chief executive (bought and paid for, of course) bullied their way into the podium and made sure that no Bangladeshi would ever touch that trophy.
And so, with a few lame excuses, they tried suspending the president from his position. On the day of the final match, the former president was not even allowed to be on the stage for the presentation ceremony and in his stead, the chairman handed the cup over. This was not just an act of discrimination, but a sign to show the whole world how corruption has trickled into the world of cricket.
Right, after the recent spat between the president and the chairman (and his CEO) of ICC, another news that followed was that the Test status of Bangladesh might be seized pretty soon as well. Such an extreme reaction comes as a shock given how the Bangladeshi Tigers performed in this World Cup and in the past five years. It is strange to think that the ICC perhaps now sees Bangladesh as a big a threat in the international cricket arena.
I am sure a lot of people would agree with me when I say that during a world event such as the World Cup, only three countries having total control over a game can really narrow down prospects for a lot of other countries. While they might lean towards certain countries, they might not be in favour of many others who love to play the game and be part of its international scenario just as much.
For your information, there are more than 120 million players who play the game right now, with a total of 38 cricketing nations who are associate members and 57 affiliate members in the world at the moment, who do not qualify to be full members yet because of certain standards and requisites that they need to fulfill at first. Of course, when a game is this big, it needs to be controlled in several ways, the main way being through a continental confederation.
Having so many nations playing cricket already, along with the ones that already have test, ODI and T20 status, as opposed to what the scenario looks like with the ICC right now, I believe all these nations can actually make a huddle and go for making the game global, ergo, form a Global Cricket Council.
Since it is no one’s hereditary right to own the game (yet), it is very much possible to form something like this with a new, unbiased board that will consist of members from various countries, including neutral ones, so that if corruption takes its head out of the earth again, it can be dealt with easier than before.
And it shouldn’t just stop there! The current Test and ODI nations should make regular visits to these countries and promote cricket in other nations too. Of course, a lot of money is involved when nations play tournaments, but is it not an opportunity for companies from the respective nations to sponsor those tournaments and promote their businesses at the same time? After all, in international games as popular as cricket, money rolls, money goes, and money comes back in multiple doses.
Bangladesh has come a long way since achieving that test status, and I am sure all other cricketing nations have the same potential to do so, without one or two cricket boards constantly politicising the game for them. It would be very sad to see this beautiful game get spoiled because of politics; the game deserves much better than that, and so do the many nations who love the game so passionately.
It is time for that brainstorming session to take place between these nations; it is time for cricket to go global.