Welcome to the world of cricket realities
View(s):There is no argument, today the game of cricket, like every other high-profile sport, is driving at breakneck speed towards commercialism and the niceties of the former gentlemen’s game are being ignored.
This came to focus during the recently concluded Incheon Asian Games where Cricket was included as a medal sport for the second time. But just as the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China in 2010, no major side sent a full-strength squad for the Incheon Games. May be Sri Lanka who looked for the gold was very close to that.
Initially Sri Lanka’s unarguable playmaker Kumar Sangakkara had some reservations about the mushroom series, but now he is very much a part of the proceedings.
India, which is accounts for two-thirds of cricket’s global income and dominates the administration of the game, sent no team for either game.
Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, president of the Olympic Council of Asia, said cricket chiefs were so fixated with business that they were neglecting the sport. “The people who are in charge of cricket are looking to be businesspeople and they want money more than promotion of the game.
“They want to control the market, they want to control the game and they want to keep the big athletes for their own. This is not sport, this is business.”
In the past 40-50 years, the game of cricket has changed its face completely. It came gradually by way of the Packer Revolution, the World Cup, the IPL and finally the takeover by the ‘Big Three’. The takeover by the Big Three was a sheer act of deception whereby England, Australia and India pulled the rug under the feet of the rest of the ICC gang to wrest control.
When the move of the takeover was in motion, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and South Africa – three of the strongest sides cricket-wise — protested, but, arm-twisting and other sidewalk tricks by the Big Three saw them capitulating. Sri Lanka, Pakistan and South Africa which were dubbed the ‘Small Three’ faced a hasty retreat and then a fight at hand for damage control.
The end result was the Big Three had the cake and they ate it the way they wanted and the crumbs thrown to the rest the way the ‘cake walkers’ agreed upon.
The existing Future Tours Programme (FTP) was scrapped. A fresh FTP was concocted in such a way that the lion’s share of the cricket wealth would be shared by the Big Three.
They played whom they wanted and when they wanted. But, initially between the lines was a clause that those who supported the Big Three deception would get some bones thrown at them in preference to those who opposed them. The West Indian tour of India was a part of the payback after the Caribbean cricket authorities gave in to the Big Three’s dictate without a whim of a protest.
An Indian tour of a country means the host country’s coffers become full of gold. Even at that time when the Big Three moves were being made, back trackers who wanted Sri Lanka to go along with the Big Three purely for the monetary gain were painting a doomsday scenario saying Sri Lanka would have a bleak FTP if they went against the Big Three. Anyway in the new FTP Sri Lanka does not have the hosting opportunity of an ICC event.
The ‘Always Breakdown and Nitharama Suffering’ Sri Lanka Cricket which built three costly international Cricket Stadiums, with global events in mind, has been in the red by the millions since the 2011 cricket World Cup.
As a matter of fact, even the rich Australians wait for an Indian tour and the England Cricket Board gave the Indians a five-Test full tour in 2014. Why? For the monetary gains an Indian tour brings in.
With these realities in the background, the Lankan administration suddenly got the chance of making a hasty mark into the Indian territory. India which last visited Sri Lanka in 2010 for a Test tour and hosted Sri Lanka for an ODI series in 2012 under the former FTP was down to play Sri Lanka in a Test series in 2015 in India.
For India this is an obligation by the TV moguls who keep filling their coffers with gold. If the West Indies pulled out, it was the business of the BCCI to get some worthy match dates for TV coverage for which they have money upfront. The Lankans meanwhile managed to beat England to fill the void created by the West Indies and play the five ODI series. On Tuesday India confirmed the five venues: Cuttack, Hyderabad, Ranchi, Kolkata and Ahmadabad.
Yes, the sudden move did upset the Lankan World Cup preparations especially the ongoing one-month-long fitness training programme with former Sri Lanka rugby captain Chandrishan Perera and the subsequent skills development programme.
How we see this scenario at the moment is through the current global cricket perspective. Everything and the only thing that matters is the bottom line. After Eve bit the apple the evolution began and this is also a part of it. This is a changing world and it is we who have to jump on board, if not it is not going to stop and wait for you.
The day that the tour hit the headlines Sri Lanka’s champion batsman Kumar Sangakkara expressed his reservations through a tweet message. Sangakkara tweeted: “Our 6 weeks of pure fitness work ends abruptly. Have a week to do a month’s requirement of skills work before India. Planning ahead anyone”.
No one disagrees with farseeing Sangakkara. But once again we have to turn and ask ourselves — “What do we aspire for? Isn’t it a good Indian series where the board will get the money and players will benefit reciprocally?” Isn’t it what everyone aspires for — Indian cash and lots of it?
It was not many moons ago the then Cricket Interim Committee chairman Arjuna Ranatunga made hasty arrangements to tour England at the beginning of the English summer at a time when some players had obligations with the Indian Premier League tournament. Finally the English tour was aborted and the IPL obligations prevailed. In Sri Lanka anything to do with India takes precedence – the present tour is no exception.
Sri Lanka Cricket vice president Mohan de Silva agrees with the Sangakkara sentiments and says the tour has disrupted the training schedule for the World Cup. But, he too sees the reality and says, “It is up to us to see how we manage the players’ upto the World Cup. Our four trump cards are – Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardena, Rangana Herath and T.M. Dilshan – the fifth Lasith Malinga still has not recovered from his injury. Even the Indians are playing the same tune. They have rested Dhoni for the first three ODIs and handed the captaincy over to Virat Kohli.
“With another five matches being added to the already crowded pre-world cup calendar, the cricket management will have to manipulate the players. They should to be mindful of injury management and player burn out,” de Silva said. However, the latest Australian strategy of facing Internationals is interesting. There is a cluster of players who get involved in a series and sometimes even the most senior players are held back. If the Lankan cricket management could successfully manage their players and go up to the World Cup with minimum or no damage the Indian series will be an immense help to our warm up. India and Australia are the favourites. Now we can gauge the strength of India which is next only to Australia.
All in all, in this commercial world, the best is to live with realities and keep the niceties for those scribes who get poetic and romantic about the game of cricket.