Blatant umpiring bias costing India test matches against Australia is nothing new. In fact, it has been the norm over the last two decades. The biggest factor that has kept emboldening the Australian cricket board and the ICC to 'arrange' for Australian victories by having cheats as umpires has been the BCCI's failure to intervene properly on behalf of neutrality. The BCCI's bosses (especially today's politician-robber Pawar) have always been only interested in the commercial aspects of the game and not in the game itself.
It is very intstructive to check the records (in this regard) of the governing bodies of other games like soccer. These bodies enjoy and jealously guard their hold and command over everything associated with their games. Thus, the Football associations of countries like England, Germany and the Latin American biggies decide which rule changes are acceptable and which are not in the game, which referees are worthy of international status, where and when matches should be held, etc. And all these decisions invariably lead to big advantages for the soccer teams of their countries (and to the disadvantage of other strong soccer countries but which do not have the necessary political and economic power). Invariably, it is these European and Latin American countries that rule the international game. A similar situation exists in the game of hockey, in which India and Pakistan were once kings.
RE:The villian in all this is Sharad Pawar himself !!
by sibby mathews on Jan 06, 2008 03:54 PM Permalink
Even in cricket, the current presidency of the ICC by Australian Malcolm Speed has distinctly marked Australia's current ascendancy in the game. The entire international cricket apparatus has come to appear as being tailored to suit the interests of the Australian cricket team. This is not to demean the might of the Australian team in any manner (they are indeed competitive cricketers and have a very healthy domestic program to groom cricketers) but only to hint that the 'edge' that they enjoy today might not have been possible without 'official' support in many subtle ways that are not exactly sporting or fair.
