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Country before club: Who shouldn't be in India

3rd October, 2010
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Roar Guru
3rd October, 2010
30
1128 Reads

Mike HusseyMichael Hussey and Doug Bollinger should not have been selected for the current Indian tour. Cricket Australia has a conflict of interest. On the one hand they claim that Test cricket is the priority for them. On the other hand they allow some of their players to represent a private franchise a week before one of the most important series.

The Champions League is a cash cow for the BCCI, Cricket South Africa and Cricket Australia. The TV rights are worth over a billion dollars and the three boards share 100 million every year.

There is nothing wrong with making money and investing it in cricket’s grassroots.

However, selecting players who were not going to be available for the pre-tour camp and did not join the team til two days before the Test, is sending the wrong message to the rest of the team.

It does not make for a happy dressing room. While Ponting and his team were practicing, Hussey and Bollinger were making a cool $200,000 for two weeks work.

The Australian players are the best paid of all the countries. They have a clause which sees the contracted players paid even if they are injured. The 25 contracted players get paid their retainers even if they are not selected.

In any other industry it would be considered a breach of contract. But since the players are contracted to CA and the board is a part owner of the Champions League, a blind eye is turned.

Cricket boards around the world are making a rod for their own backs. Pollard and Bravo have refused the West Indies contracts, choosing instead to be free agents. Gayle, on the other hand, can be classed a double agent. He has accepted the contract and will presumably put the Kolkata Knight Riders before the West Indies.

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It would not surprise to see players like Pietersen also begin to question the wisdom of their ECB contracts. After all he is paid 1.5 million dollars to represent Bangalore for six weeks of the year. Flintoff had already signaled his intentions prior to being injured.

Andrew Symonds was probably relieved the CA shunted him. Mathew Hayden still combines his duties as CA director and Chennai Super Kings star player.

What if Watson’s team had qualified for the Champions League?

Where does all this leave the Baggy Green? What is it doing to the tradition and values handed down by Bradman, Benaud and the Chappells?

Is it any wonder the paying punter is cynical? It is not so much that cricket has become a business but that business is running cricket. And this in itself is not a bad thing.

But where is the transparency? Cricket Australia has to be very clear in defining what the players can and cannot do.

Country has to come before club. If players object then drop them. There is any number of talented players waiting for the chance to fly in the pointy end of the plane.

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Cricket Australia is compromised with its close relation with the BCCI and can hardly object when it shares in their largesse. Self interest in this case is not in the interests of Australian Cricket. And Cricket Australia needs to be reminded of this.

The IPL can swallow all the cricket boards around the world and still have change left. The IPL franchise owners are not doing it for the love of the game. It is an opportunity for them to put their brands before the 300 million consumers in India.

These wealthy millionaires and billionaires can afford to lose more than the cricket boards could hope to make. In the end the players make the IPL and without them there is no league.

Cricket Australia has to issue a “No Objection Certificate” to the BCCI before its players can be considered. These are issued as a matter of routine. CA must insist its players put country before club. No exceptions.

The poor crowds for the first test in Mohali show the lack of appreciation for Test Cricket in India. The first day had fewer than two thousand people. The second and third days had the ground a third and half full. In spite of Ravi Shastri saying it was a good crowd the half empty stadium said otherwise.

The TV ratings may be good but that is because of the Tendulkar factor and not because of a love for Test cricket.

The pitch for this Mohali Test can best be described as sluggish. The monsoon is not an excuse. It could have been played at Kolkata or Mumbai. The BCCI is not interested in Test cricket. In fact these two tests were an afterthought.

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There are currently 30 odd Australian players playing in the IPL and this number could increase next year. These players have been nurtured by the Australian cricket system and they owe their livelihood to Cricket Australia.
If CA is really interested in preserving the eminence of Test cricket then it should forbid its players from moonshining and filling their pockets.

Have our administrators stopped to think that International cricket may soon be at the mercy of beer barons and shopping mall billionaires?

All this spot fixing and subsequent angst at the cleaning up of cricket may actually be a result of the commercialisation of cricket. Will it reach the stage where you and I simply say: It’s just not cricket.

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