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COMMENT

ICC succumb to Pawar’s power:

Oh cricket! What sins are committed in thy name

With Indian off spinner Harbhajan Singh, being cleared of racially abusing Australian allrounder Andrew Symonds and being fined for a lesser offence of abusing an opponent, the whole cricket world has collapsed.

And the laughing stock is the International Cricket Council and Cricket Australia. They must be hiding like Adam did in the garden of Eden after eating of the forbidden fruit. And the Board of Control for Cricket in India must surely be laughing their sides out and saying to themselves - we beat them both by innings.

Originally, Harbhajan was found guilty of racially abusing Symonds by match referee Michael Procter, and was slapped a Three Test ban. But the ICC allowed Harbhajan to play, appointing an Appeal Judge to sit and inquire into the charge.

Now what the ICC should have done was to have first carried out the order of the match referee. To let Harbhajan play and then take action was not cricket and it was a slur on Procter.

Now the Appeal Judge John Hansen has ruled out racial abuse and fined Harbhajan 50 per cent of his match fee after the bowler pleaded guilty to the lesser offence and the Three Test ban was lifted.

What prompted the judge to go easy was that the ICC and especially Cricket Australia, had chickened fearing that the Indians would pull out of the Commonwealth Bank Tri-series and leave them facing a million dollar law suit.

Reports have it that the Australian players who made the charge against Harbhajan had been told to by Cricket Australia to drop the racial abuse charges and go for a lesser offence.

Now the ICC and CA have rightly being accused of chickening and giving in to the BCCI. And the BCCI is being accused of threatening the ICC and CA and having their own way.

Apparently the BCCI were aware that the ICC had still not shed its toothless Tiger image and that they have no fangs to bare, struck when the iron was hot, and now the ICC, the shieks of cricket had their bubble burst and now left to lick their wounds, which wounds would never heal but be a cancer,what with other Cricket Boards likely to take the cue from the Indian Board and act that way,when faced with similar situations.

The Australian cricketers who levelled the racial abuse charges,must also be having that sickening feeling. They too like their Cricket Board and the ICC lacked guts. Sad when one thinks that cricket teaches one to play a straight bat.

Now it would be interesting to watch how the Umpires panel and the elite Match Referees panel will act. First they had their best umpire sent home after the mistakes he made. Then match referee Procter’s decision has been overruled.

As for the umpires, what happened to Bucknor would prompt them to not get involved in controversy and lose the big money they earn. Ditto the match referees. And if this happens where will all these lead to?

It will no doubt devalue everything that the game of cricket stands for and when the great scorer comes to write against your name, he will not write whether you won or lost, but how you did not offer a straight bat and sacrificed the game for fear and filthy lucre.

Cricket, the game must be standing naked after the sins that have been committed in its name.

One needs not predict that the game would never be the same again.

The ICC has also boobed by not making Kiwi Judge John Hansen aware about the true facts of the case.

According to the judge, an administrative mistake by the ICC has saved Harbhajan.

The ICC has apparently misinformed the judge by not informing him that there were four previous convictions against the off spinner.

ICC had told him that there had been only one previous offence.

So it is sad that the ICC had misled the judge. Shame is too light a term to describe the act of the ICC.

Judge Hansen would not have been faulted if he had reprimanded the ICC.

Oh cricket! What sins are committed in thy name.

Now that the BCCI has snooked the ICC it would not be a bad idea for the ICC to entrust all its duties to the BCCI. The final verdict is that Sharad Pawar’s BCCI power has won the day.

Pawar is the power behind the BCCI as president.

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