|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Saturday, 1 May 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Sports | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
Cricket riding a storm Saadi Thawfeeq Cricket has ridden many stormy seas from the Bodyline series in the 1930s through to the Packer revolution in the seventies and until recently player contracts for the 2003 World Cup involving sponsors. The latest crisis international cricket faces is centred around Zimbabwe where 18 of the top white players led by their former captain Heath Streak are blackmailing the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) unless some of their major demands are met. The crisis was precipitated after the rebels supported Streak, who was sacked from the captaincy after giving the ZCU a list of demands related to the manner in which the team was being selected. Day in and day out there was news filtering in to say that the rebel players were due to turn up for practice the following morning as the under strength Zimbabwe side with an average of just 21 years was being savaged by a full strength Sri Lanka team in the one-day internationals. But such news has turned out be wishful thinking because the rebels have failed to budge an inch from the stand they have taken. The key to the whole issue it seems is that the rebels have no trust in the ZCU and at the same time the ZCU was not willing to cow down to their demands and stubbornly refused to waver on Streak and the captaincy. As a result the issue has reached an impasse. Prior to this issue it was quite clear that Zimbabwe were losing some of their top white cricketers who had served them well since they attained Test status over a decade ago. Soon after the 1999 World Cup in England, two of their topnotch performers Neil Johnson and Murray Goodwin decided they will further their careers in England and Australia respectively because they saw no future for them in Zimbabwe. And as recently as the 2003 World Cup Andy Flower and black fast bowler Henry Olonga wore black arm bands in protest against 'the death of democracy in Zimbabwe' during the matches which ultimately saw them being branded as traitors. Fearing for their lives they decided to find greener pastures elsewhere and moved to England. The present crisis is a mere extension of what's happened in the recent past. With no proper solution to the crisis on the horizon, Zimbabwe cricket it seems is headed for darker times for the time being although the blacks sees light at the end of the tunnel with a young national team comprising entirely of blacks. What international cricket is currently going through amidst this deadlock between the rebel white cricketers and the ZCU is damaging on the long run. The results of the one-day series between Sri Lanka and a totally under strength and inexperienced Zimbabwe team has come to a point of taking international cricket to the level of substandard. The International Cricket Council (ICC) by promoting Bangladesh rather prematurely to full membership have already lowered the level of Test and one-day international cricket to a point where it has become a joke. The present crisis in Zimbabwe compounds it to a level where the ICC as the international watchdog can no longer sit and observe, but move into immediate action if this glorious game of cricket is not to demean itself further. One of the ICC's harshest critics has been the doyen of sports writers Ian Wooldridge who recently wrote in the 'Daily Mail' under the heading: 'Cricket's spineless leaders will never confront Mugabe': "Two absolutely pointless Test cricket series are shortly to be played. These are between Zimbabwe at home to Sri Lanka and Australia. Zimbabwe will be slaughtered in both in no time. "This is because the Zimbabwe Cricket Union inspired by Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party insists that white players of considerable experience should be dropped and replaced by black players, some mere junior apprentices in this terrifically hard and complicated game at international level. "Their designated captain, for example is 20-year-old Tatenda Taibu, the youngest Test skipper in history, who doesn't stand a chance. "So what is the International Cricket Council, the game's governing body doing about this? As usual, precisely nothing. In many years of observing this game I have never met a body of administrators so supine and so disinclined to address a stressful issue, particularly if it involves a black-white confrontation." In the mean time Zimbabwe have stumbled from one humiliation to another with their predominantly black, second-string side. Last Sunday, they were skittled out for just 35, the lowest total ever in a one-day international, and that too against a Sri Lankan side without key spinner Muttiah Muralitharan who was rested. One of the rebel players said that he believes this debacle could be the first of many, especially with Australia scheduled to tour Zimbabwe in May. The game has gone through many tidal waves and for cricket's sake let's hope this could be one that it can overcome, at least before the Test series. Future Muralis? The Zimbabwe players' issue has more or less pushed Muralitharan's controversial delivery into the background. But this little piece of news is worthwhile reading. It has been taken off the 'Daily Mail' and reads: "A cricket coach in Devon has recruited a class of schoolboys in order to teach them to bowl like Muttiah Muralitharan, the contortionist Sri Lanka spinner. "Frankly a course in housebreaking would be just as useful since it can only lead to confusion, controversy and misery. Without Murali's wily deception and freakish double-jointed wrist, the kids will only develop into a brood of illegal chuckers whose careers won't survive the scrutiny of most umpires." The newspaper suggested a few videos of Shane Warne's genius instead. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
