Friday 5 December 2008

Stuck going nowhere

"Cricket's unique selling point is the passion for cricket by Indians - cricket is the most popular sport by a factor of about 30 in the second-most populous country in the world. This should be seen as a major positive. The game needs to find ways to use that unique selling point. There is too much fear of an Indian takeover and the power of the Indian administrators."

Malcolm Speed, who once had one of the positions most likely to attract hatred in the cricket world, speaks to the SMH. However well or otherwise he and the ICC performed when he was in charge, he seems to be speaking some sense about its future. Unfortunately, there is more politicking than sense involved, so most of his statements end with something like "I do not expect to see it happen."

The Tonk has also got the low-down on Bucknor's travel problems. It wasn't airline trouble, but US Immigration, which is more fussy than immigration anywhere else I've been. While some would still try to implicate various cricket boards in the incident, perhaps some diplomatic pressure to should be brought to bear to avoid a repeat. I'm sure that at this stage of his career noone is particularly desparate to have Bucknor in particular, but it should doesn't sound like Rudi was in the best state to umpire a Test match. More importantly, the very idea that a Test umpire should be held up displays a lack of proper respect for cricket on part of the Americans! ;P

5 comments:

Jonathan said...

It seems to be the year for umpires having visa troubles... Bowden is replacing Rauf for the first India v England match, as well.

Anonymous said...

Pretty surprised by Speed's comments... a lot of people here paused on it!

And yes it looks like a new way to get rid of umpires and players... delay their visas LOL. Cunning :). Remember Mohammed Yousuf.

Jonathan said...

I didn't expect him to be so sensible! What stood out from an Indian point of view? Is it just the comments about India's role, or are there strong views on his more general suggestions?

Anonymous said...

The point which stood out and surprised most here was on the fact that India-Aus have voted together more often than not as allies, against even at times some of the other sub-con boards who have not.

This is something you don't find covered by any news agencies... the predominate belief is that the sub-con boards have always stuck together.

I was very surprised and tried to dig some info on this. Couldn't find any. It would be interesting for any cricket fan to find out on what all issues were these votes taken and who all voted for what.

Jonathan said...

It would be good to see some details. I suspect that the block voting patterns come out only when the board ends up dealing with big news stories like on-field issues. It might be another story when it comes to the more boring, practical things.