Jhakas | Sanjay Jha
There is no substitute for experience. None other than good ole' Geoffrey Boycott, the veteran opener with a soft spot for both the slender Shilpa Shetty and the aristocratic Prince of Kolkotta, could have re-asserted that point better.
Commenting on the early qualifiers of the Champions Trophy matches underway, Boycs made a telling statement, re-emphasising what we at CricketNext have gone hoarse screaming from the pointed peaks of skyscrapers that "teams are as good as the administrators who run the game". Continue reading below
Nothing manifests the truism in that statement as does the performance of the Indian team of late.
Just look at the ridiculous manner in which the BCCI is conducting itself right in the middle of a tournament, that can leave the teams either thoroughly demoralised or highly galvanised for the big World Cup 2007 which is to follow.
Remember, Sourav Ganguly's dadas were the joint Champions Trophy winners with Sri Lanka in 2002 and went onto be the runners- up in Johannesburg in 2003.
Sri Lanka almost tripped the Australian juggernaut in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in the semi-finals.
There is squabbling galore; the BCCI is fighting a major combative tussle with ICC on signing of the fundamental MPA agreement, failing which India can get itself ostracised from the entire international cricketing community.
Now this is serious stuff, but the BCCI is hell-bent on creating a huge brouhaha on this subject, clearly capitalising on the fact that currently (given home-advantage) they an create a massive publicity machinery against the ICC.
While India's commercial might can be under-estimated or challenged by ICC at it's own risk and responsibility, the way media briefings are happening from both sides, it is both juvenile and a joke.
It is a shadow war between two money-obsessed, power-hungry organisations, struggling to come to terms with their silly immaturity, one-upmanship and professional incompetence.
They are also engaging the cricket players into a needless controversy all over again on ambush marketing, with the ICC even cheekily suggesting that they will directly deal with the Indian players.
Imagine some ICC legal-eye explaining intimate and intimidating contract details to a MS Dhoni just before the India-England match on the coming Sunday?
Do you really believe a normal player can concentrate properly in this degenerate environment?
You can imagine what obtuse-heads run cricket administration both locally and at the international level, that the ICC Cricket Awards had to been suddenly postponed, because the BCCI woke up to the belated wisdom that the award ceremony coincided with the celebration of the Diwali festival in India, crackers, rockets, bombs and all.
Even our government post-offices know the holiday calendar at the beginning of the year, but clearly BCCI sleepwalks with remarkable regularity, never setting a foot wrong.
Now the said event has been postponed to November 3, two days before the grand finale. What a farce!
Just take a deep pause, and imagine what happens to the players mental paradigm, with constant disputes, administration scams, political wheeling-dealing, and commercial negotiations going on at jet set speed by the powers-that-be.
Have you heard of a single comment from BCCI officials about our game, players, form, fitness, selection or strategy? Does anybody even care? I can assure you that right now the most intense, heated discussions between BCCI and ICC must be on corporate boxes, exclusive lunch tents and VIP complimentary passes.
Geoffrey Boycott is bang-on; countries such as Pakistan, Zimbabwe, and West Indies have suffered incalculable damage on account of rampant maladministration by their respective country chieftains.
Look at the atrocious issue of Younis Khan's captaincy resignation affair.
Poor President Musharraf ; besides press-conferencing with George Bush, hunting Osama bin Laden, offering olive branches to simmering dissidents, negotiating the Kashmir dispute, he is also got to intervene in the selection of Pakistan cricket skipper.
Sri Lankan cricket had touched the proverbial nadir when political skirmishes in Colombo threatened to reach alarming proportions. The lesser said about Zimbabwe's precipitous decline, the better.
At the time of writing this article, most state associations are sitting on an unsold pile of match tickets, students are burning effigies of BCCI Vice-President Lalit Modi, and the two warring factions (ICC and BCCI) are drawing up plans for another round of artillery exchange.
North Korea, with it's atomic tests, is providing solid fodder for our champion administrators. God bless us all!
Cricket, anyone?
