The World Cup finally ended with the familiar image of Australia winning the cup and the ICC blundering yet again. It has been a recurrent theme throughout the over stretched event.
We hoped to see a competitive match between the two best teams reaching the final, with many neutrals hoping for an upset resulting in Sri lanka snatching the title that looked like being Australia's from the outset. The weather intervened to reduce the match to 38 overs each and then disrupted the end. In between the Aussies posted an imposing total , with a brilliant innings from Gilchrist that would always test the Lankans. Someone from the Aussie side always stands tall when it counts and it was the turn of Gilchrist, whose brilliant innings of 149 proved to be the difference between the two sides. The Lankans threatened with Jayasuriya and Sangakkara at the crease but folded on their departure. In truth, they did their best, but it was never going to be enough to beat the awesome Aussies, who are simply the best on all counts and by a distance. I had so much hoped for an upset but as I watched the match, I had to admire the Aussies and concede that they were the rightful and worthy winners.
The other rather unfortunate image of the whole event has to be the part ICC has played in making it a forgettable event. The one day game is a cash cow that panders to the needs of sponsors at the expense of the fans who love the game. The ICC were like imperialists who invaded the Caribbean, took away all the things that make it a special place and put in place their stringent rules and regulations to suit their greedy needs. The locals were rendered helpless in their own backyard and prevented from enjoying the event as they would normally do. It was a succession of blunders right through that will unfortunately colour the event in peoples minds. They tried to reverse some of their decisions but it was too little too late in the end. It was therefore fitting that it was a blunder on the final day that ended the tournament in total darkness. The ICC are clearly not in touch with what people want and what is good for the game and they can't even interpret their own rules with an army of officials at hand. It would be laughable if it didn't go further to tarnish this wonderful game of cricket which they clearly know or care little about.
So the Aussies walk away with the cup again and it is up to their competitors to watch and learn from the masters and catch up with them. As for the ICC, they have blundered too many times now and need to be held accountable before they completely ruin the game.
7 comments:
and exactly how should the ICC be made accountable?
We need an independent body made up of key stakeholders to review their performance and effectiveness.
and then what?
Quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?
A witch hunt, a few heads roll, everybody pats themselves on the back till the next unmitigated disaster.
Instead, if we work on the premise that the ICC is "like that only" and try to work with that in mind, wouldn't we be better served?
If, instead of looking for scapegoats or forming committees ( which are a waste of time and money), why not try to identify what went wrong and work on correcting these issues?
We host the World Cup in 4 years - lets see if we learnt the lessons from this disaster .
btw, excellent blog..
You are right as most governing bodies are the same and there's not much to be gained by tinkering with personnel.
How do we ensure that they really identify mistakes and avoid them next time when their measure of success seems to be different to ours eg money?
Thank you for the compliment, greatly appreciated.
Money is not necessarily a bad thing - every sport needs money to ustain itself and grow.
Thing is - there were certain obvious things and some less obvious things that caused the debacle that is the WC 2007.
Ticket pricing, logistics, excluding the locals are some of the more obvious manifestations.
Duration of the tourney, ground location, lack of flood lights at the venues are some of the less obvious manifestations.
If they botch up the next time around, they will see a sizable drop in the very thing that drives them - money.
Happened this time and wouldn't be too surprised if it happened again this time with greater repercussions ( remember that the subcontinent is the engine room for global cricket revenues and if the subcontinentals get turned off from the game, the ICC can basically wave goodbye to all their projected numbers).
Already ESPN Star is rethinking its deal with the ICC so there is hope yet :)
Cheers
I hope the next one in the sub continent is a success for all the right reasons. I was hoping that at least one game is hosted in one of the smaller posts - Baroda(my Guju home for a few weeks in a year) but I understand the logic of restricting it to a few big grounds.
Rashmika,
Big grounds, small grounds, city, village is all immaterial as long as the chosen venues can cater to the influx of people coming in for the World Cup.
The other thing is that we limit the number of venues - too many venues and we will end up with a logistical nightmare ( remember the poms criss crossing the country during that 7 ODI set?)
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