It has been a clash of the West versus the East ever since the popularity of cricket started to grow exponentially. From what was called the “Imperial Cricket Conference” when it was established in 1909 through the coalition of three nations, England, Australia and South Africa, it has now become the “International Cricket Council,” having ten nations as Full Members. England as the leader of the Commonwealth ruled the game in the early days and well into the 60s. With the support of the Australians and South Africans, they controlled the laws and called the shots having the luxury of the right to veto any resolution placed in the meetings. In 1926, three new members (New Zealand, India and the West Indies) were invited to join (note the word “invited”) with Pakistan joining in 1956. So it remained, until 1981 with the inclusion of Sri Lanka, that seven teams within the Commonwealth nations that entertained themselves participated in what has come to be known as “Test match cricket.”
ODI is a format that literally brought life into the game, which was being subdued by the tedious environment of Test cricket of the olden days. The tussle between the East and the West is an old one with the Indian subcontinent teams losing out in managing cricketing affairs outside the playing field. Three main factors contributed to the change in the balance of power. Firstly, the removal of the “veto power” law, secondly, the growth of the Indian economy that allowed many Indian business entities to focus on this one game that India still had a chance of creating an impact and thirdly, the decision to grant Bangladesh full membership of the ICC in 2000, thereby qualifying to play Test cricket and having a vote in the ICC. The rest is all history.
Having penciled the above, let us now come to the tainted quarter-final between Bangladesh and India. The world witnessed and was appalled at some umpiring decisions that went against Bangladesh. The no-ball call against Rubel Hossain that would have otherwise dismissed Rohit Sharma before he made his hundred, a controversial decision of a successful catch to dismiss Mahmudullah and an LBW rejection that would have seen the back of Suresh Raina who went on to make 65 crucial runs. The game administrators (ICC) must back the umpires. After all they represent the ICC. Question that is raised by many, inclusive of several international Test cricketers of repute, is the following - “Would the umpires have made the same calls if it was not a lowly-rated team like Bangladesh involved?” If this was Australia and Michael Clarke was on the field, be assured that both Rohit and Raina would be back in the pavilion and, Mahmudullah would have added six more runs to his core and continued his innings.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board must know who its friends are in the ICC and who it can trust to develop its game. India most certainly is not. In the first place India is too big in the head to be concerned about the welfare and progress of Bangladesh cricket. This is the price that you pay for siding with the “predatory Big Three.” Don’t even think of trying to beat them in a global competition where huge financial commitments are made. India has not forgotten 2007 and the ICC will ensure that it never happens again.
Questions have also been raised as to why the match venue was changed to Melbourne. Of all the venues why Melbourne? The size of the MCG works against Bangladesh’s style of play and India has done its homework pretty well. Bangladesh’s batting relies more on fours and sixes rather than ones and twos. Its batters are not the best in rotating the strike. This batting style is ideal for smaller grounds.
The MCG is one of the biggest grounds in the world and shots that would normally be sixes in most grounds will end up in the hands of a fielder in the deep at the MCG. Mahmudullah’s hook, ill-timed as it may be, would have landed in the stands had it been in a ground anywhere in New Zealand and in several grounds in Australia that are being used as World Cup venues.
The Bangladesh fan base is emotionally agitated and frustrated and, rightly so. While the frustration is amply justified, let us not forget that other than the umpiring mishaps, Bangladesh allowed itself to be beaten comprehensively after all. What has happened is now history and no protest, etc, will change the outcome of the match. I write this as an analyst and having represented the country in its formative years, it is my moral obligation to make the administrators and players aware of the mistakes that have been made in this World Cup. Unlike many, including several former cricketing colleagues of mine, I cannot take the position of the fans from the gallery. My in-depth knowledge of the game, which is far superior to theirs, does not allow my conscience to think in any other vein.
My fear is that since the umpiring issue has been made the centre point of all social and mainline media discussions, no one will talk about the failure of the Bangladesh team in the quarter-final. To me, it did not look like a team that was ready to move ahead in the tournament. Having seen the same team play against England and New Zealand with so much passion and fire, I was not only disappointed but also perplexed by the team’s lack of enthusiasm to win. The fact that, Rubel, Bangladesh’s best strike bowler is ignored and under-utilised for the second time in a row is not only thought provoking but is also questionable. The way the Bangladesh batters approached the innings starting with the recklessness of Tamim Iqbal and the lack of interest to push the score along in the middle by Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib al Hasan seemed quite abnormal and raises many questions. “Which divine power was yanking their chain and had instructed them to pull the shutters down?” We all understand that 302 is not an easy total to chase but it certainly does not mean that this Bangladesh unit that has chased 318 and won could not have made a better effort. There was no devil in the wicket and it was adequately proven by Sabbir Rahman and Nasir Hossain when they exhibited some effortless batting later in the innings. Of course, by that time the match was already packaged and handed over to the Indians.
Let us not worry about the Indians or for that matter anyone else. Let us focus on what we need to do to give our players of today and tomorrow a better chance of competing against the best the world has to offer so that there is no scope for such controversies. I remember during my playing days, when we played against the two big teams of Dhaka cricket, we were mentally prepared that we would be playing against 11 players and two umpires. We had to make sure that we beat the opposition comprehensively so the umpires have no chance to come into play. Bangladesh needs to take its cricket to that level.