Mayhem at Mannofield Park

The publishing industry is abuzz and grapevine has it that ICC fountainheads Ray Mali, David Morgan and Sharad Pawar are burning midnight oil, co-authoring “101 Sure Shot Ways to Kill One Day Cricket”.

How else you explain pitting an unsuspecting Liliput against the big Brobdingnag bully resulting in the ugliest mismatch in one day cricket’s history? And if this is how ICC envisages the associates improving, Mali & Co should at once be put through the SCAN.

Trust me, boxing – at least amateur boxing -- may look a gory sport but it’s more humane. You don’t see a flyweight pugilist hurled into the ring to be easy meat for his super heavyweight candidate. And then there also is this provision of RSC or Referee Stops Contest when it becomes mockery of a bout.

But then cricket is a different proposition, a different BALL game altogether. Licensed to overkill, bobblehead ICC nods in affirmative whenever an ODI tournament is proposed and the Mannofield Park massacre also reveals its criminal indifference to the associate members’ future.

Tip-toeing in its cricket infancy, all Ireland needed was to be guided to the pool. Instead, they were thrown into the deepest end, with a hungry shoal of sharks waiting for a feast. Poor Irish bowlers must have been shaking and shrinking in their boots when the McCullum-Marshall-Taylor trio was setting the ball on orbits, posing serious security hazard for the low-flying ScotAirways planes.

If ICC still claims to care for its associate members, it should engage shrinks to help the Irish players come out of the trauma.

What baffles me is ICC’s adamance not to learn the lesson from its Bangladesh experience and persisting with the same logic-defying rush to elevate the associates despite the obvious counter-productive outcome. I won’t be surprised if Kyle McCallan and his boys develop an inferiority complex, convinced of their inability to break into and hang around in the big league.

Meanwhile for ODIs, IPL has already done enough to put it on the deathbed. ICC surely can’t wait to administer the last rites.

Is Ford’s appointment a Pawar-ploy to grab ICC top job?

Graham Ford is all set to take over as the new Team India coach and he is way ahead of John Emburey as far as coaching credential is concerned. And to sceptic eyes, Ford’s appointment won’t be the end of the ongoing high-voltage drama, but just part of a bigger plot.

The growing notion that Ford would be chosen because BCCI President Sharad Pawar desperately seeks South Africa’s vote to become the ICC President. The megalomaniac in Pawar has never tried to hide his unabashed love for power and these days, he’s doing everything to please the Protea cricket board for reasons too obvious.

After Percy Sonn’s death, Pawar could have assumed the ICC top job but he hinted that he was not game for a stop-gap role. Instead, he suggested a South Africa should get the job. Ray Mali, the Cricket South Africa chief, eventually succeeded Sonn.

"The point that weighs in Ford's favour was that Pawar requires South Africa's vote to become the next International Cricket Council president (ICC)," a BCCI source was quoted as saying in a media report.

Now, this is one can only expect in India. Team India’s reputation, the emotion of its umpteen die-hard fans, everything is hit for a six just to ensure that a power-hungry official gets the post he craves for.

Ford has an impressive credential, no doubt about that. But Dav Whatmore’s was even better. We still don’t know why BCCI dangled the carrot before ditching him at the eleventh hour. Things are not looking bright with Indian cricket and it’s really tough not to be a cynic.

Image: The Hindu