This is a post by Paddle, and not Mspr1nt. I wish I could write as well as she does! Cheers…
I haven’t been blogging for about a month now, because nothing interesting seemed to be happening. India was busy playing Sri Lanka again, and the rest was pretty much the usual boring stuff. Nothing to write about, so I waited. I waited for someone to create a ruckus big enough for me to get my two cents across.
Today, Mr. John Howard, former Prime Minister of the great nation of Australia, has uttered one of the greatest cliches you would ever hear. He said and I quote, “It’s not about me, it’s about the future of the game”
The context – his rejected nomination for the post of ICC vice president, and his subsequent pending decision to reapply. He wants Cricket Australia to take a call on what he re-brands as ”future of the game”. Bollocks to that, and bollocks to the notion that the Aussies think they can look smart talking like that.
What is the issue anyways, if it’s not Howards political ego, I ask! Australiasia have a man to head the ICC from 2012, that is engraved in concrete, unlikely to be changed. Their guy would for now be the vice president. They wanted Howard to be that guy, but the Asia-Africa bloc didn’t like his political ass in the vice-president’s chair. Being a majority, they ensured that his candidature is rejected, for his past sins.
The buck should have stopped there. I know it hurts if a candidate is rejected, but there are ways dealing with rejection. Public defamation of the system is not one of the dignified ones. I am not going to talk up the idea that since the Asian bloc contributes 80 percent of the revenue, they deserve to be all powerful. The fact is that they are, and they will take decisions based on that power. Australia could either have accepted it, nominated someone smarter, and then called the shots when their guy became the president in 2012, or they could have cried foul and spoiled everyone’s taste.
They chose the latter, and I am reeling with indigestion at their stupidity. One more thing. What is this all for anyways? Does the president of the ICC get a share of all the Indian money? No, right! Then how can anything change anything. I think the dissenting countries should look to come up with an audience willing to consume rich cricket content, to generate and contribute that kind of revenue, so that the balance of power is maintained. Because, money is power, and why not!
Your opinion welcome, fill me in in the comments section.
Ankit Mishra