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Politics a dirty game? Politics all about power? Consider the following quotes from Finance Minister Tanner, speaking with ABC TV on Wednesday: “I am comfortable with the Labor Party making majority decisions about its leadership. It’s a tough game. We all sign up to it knowing that sometimes things are not going to go quite as we hoped.”
“To pull out one particular example and say, ‘Oh isn’t this terrible’ … democracy is a contact sport, it always will be. The great thing is, it’s the alternative to violence for settling disputes.”
Spiro’s piece yesterday was headlined ‘Howard stabbed …’ I would suggest it was a case of Cricket Australia shooting itself in the foot.
Cricket Australia nominated the wrong man. Were they aware that as Deputy Opposition Leader in the mid 80s, he opposed sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa?
It is public record that Howard was at odds with Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser when Fraser refused a plane carrying Springboks to refuel in Australia. John Howard may have reinvented himself, but many in the Afro-Asian bloc remember him for what he was.
Australia’s engagement with India since the Menzies era in the 1950s has been one ranging from disinterest to calculated opportunism.
The following is an excerpt from a Foreign Affairs document relating to Kashmir: “In determining the line to follow [on Kashmir] the fundamental principle should be to cultivate Pakistan rather than India if we must make a choice.” (Mediansky 1971, p.61emphasis in original document)
The Cold War politics of the 1960s saw India aligned with Russia and Australia toeing the American line. Australia has consistently serenaded China and Japan, to the exclusion of India.
Another ‘hiccup’ in the Australia-India relationship also arose in the sphere of defence when in 1990 Australia sold 50 mothballed Mirage III jets to Pakistan during a period of heightened tension over Kashmir.
The emphasis shifted in the early 90s with India’s emergence as an economic power.
India has been too busy to worry about Australia in the last decade. But Australia’s reluctance to sell uranium to India has not won them many friends, especially as it has no reservations about selling it to China.
I only mention these so readers are aware this is not a simplistic black versus white debate.
Politics, trade, sport and economics are inextricably linked in this 21st Century. To think otherwise would be foolish.
The following is what I wrote in Inside Sport last November:
What is the style of management of this group of aged, extremely wealthy men at the helm of the BCCI? Ruthless is one word that comes to mind.
The BCCI has set about crushing its opposition, the Indian Cricket League (ICL) – a mainly Twenty20competition seen as a rebel league backed by a rival broadcast organisation.
For the last two years, the BCCI has cajoled and coaxed other boards, including Cricket Australia, to extend the restrictive trade practices to their constituents.
Shane Bond was ostracised from an already weak New Zealand team; South African players like Lance Klusener and Australians like Damien Martyn, Jason Gillespie and Michael Bevan were banned from associations with Australian cricket.
Gillespie was last year excluded from applying for a job at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane.
Inderjit Singh Bindra ordered the removal of Kapil Dev’s portrait from the PCA Stadium pavilion in Mohali. Sri Lanka and the West Indies, both impoverished Boards, are effectively held to ransom by the BCCI.
Arjuna Ranatunga was removed from his executive post in Sri Lankan cricket because he called the IPL “instant noodles.”
Cricket Australia has been in Jack Clark’s words “in a close and good relationship with the BCCI.” I would say that for CA now to feign bewilderment is either naïve or disingenuous.
Peter Roebuck says that “CA may have overplayed their hand” and this is closer to the mark.
I have nothing but admiration for Roebuck’s continued rage against the Mugabe regime. Malcolm Speed is also justified in questioning the legitimacy of the Boards of Pakistan and Bangladesh.
However, this “power grab” by India is not an overnight development.
Cricket Australia and the ECB are not defenceless schoolboys. I would say they have stood by idly and not censured when they were justified in doing so.
This is unquestionably about power and very little about the race divide.
But to counteract that India’s power is evil or something just as sensational is to miss the point. It is history that the ICC, when Australia and England had veto power, was not exactly benevolent.
This is not any justification for India to “get square” for past grievances.
India is not immune to corruption and there is much that needs to be rectified. But to dismiss them as “third world” is to ignore one of the largest economies in the world. If Australia is so outraged then perhaps it should terminate all contact with India.
But I can assure you, that would not be contemplated. It is now about saving face.
Cricket Australia’s, and Australia’s in general, engagement with India has been on a superficial level. It has not understood the cultural and historical nuances of a country both complex and simple.
The current generation of Indians is not shackled by the “gentility” of their fathers. India is largely producing for local consumption and is less reliant on exports than China.
The French, the Italians, the Germans and Japanese have assiduously cultivated and for years strengthened their cultural and economic ties with India.
The East India Company may have robbed India of its riches but not its wealth.
Corruption and power were not invented by India. Berlusconi and Bush have enough shade of grey in their pinstripes to shame India.
This is a time for Australia to engage India in a long-term and meaningful manner. Indians generally are fully aware of the corruption in India and are not proud of it. The media in India are constantly running reports of rorts and complicity.
At least they admit it. And this is the first step in eradicating it.
This is not a time for “holier than thou” homilies. It is a time to work towards a just and lasting cricket peace, where all members are treated equally and fairly.
If India is being excessive, then tell the world about it.
India, to my mind, has been open to censure in the last two years. CA and the ECB have kept quiet. This amounts to tacit endorsement. No amount of moral or political outrage will wash with a public that is both cynical and astute.
A final memo to all cricket administrators: You are merely custodians and your brief is to leave the game better than you found it.
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