Sepp Blatter has resigned, but what do FIFA do that the ICC can learn from?
If you park the fact that Mugabe’s Zimbabwe is less corrupt, Sepp Blatter has led FIFA through a period where global growth has been the cornerstone of his rule.
In fact, under his tutelage, football has grown in Asia and Africa like never before.
Now, the wise owls reading this will allege that this has occurred only to allow for the farming of votes for his re-election.
In the FIFA system, every country that is a member has an equal vote. They don’t suffer from elitist concepts such as Full Member, Associate or ODI Status.
However, this system brings with it both advantages and disadvantages.
Let’s now swing the conversation back to cricket.
Its expansionist goals are non existent. One could quite plausibly argue that its goals are in fact contractionary.
Where the world game gives every member nation an equal ability to have a say, cricket has chosen a path of centralising power and decision making into the hands of three nation, India, Australia and England. The IC3.
Furthermore, it has created and is defending a system that refutes the desires of other nations to officially compete and play the game.
This concept has been widely reported on, especially throughout the latest World Cup. I suggest that the upcoming release of the film ‘Death of a Gentleman’ will ensure that it owns the narrative through the 2015 Ashes as well.
The ICC situation is worth a revisit.
Narayanaswami Srinivasan is likely to lose his position as ICC Chairman come September. His co-conspirator Giles Clarke still lurks in the corridors as the ECB President, a role created just to appease a single man’s ego.
However, the function of this role is to represent the ECB at the ICC and allow Clarke a pathway to its chairmanship. Australia’s Wally Edwards is described by Lalit Modi as nothing more than a puppet and a guy coming along for the ride.
Therefore, it doesn’t take too much of an adventurous mind to suggest that things could change at Cricket Australia and the BCCI under strong leadership. We could see the ICC steer the ship back towards opening up cricket for the masses once again.
This would of course by battled by Giles Clarke. Anything that possibly dilutes ECB power or TV revenues must not be allowed to gather momentum.
However, basic economic law explains that where demand increases, so does the price.
Currently, only 14 nations in the world have an official ranking in any form of the game. In football, 209 countries have a ranking.
In the ICC world, a country has to jump through a series of steps to be able to play an official game.
To even become an affiliate, a country has to prove they can meet a certain amount of criteria, such as having 2 grounds available for play, a junior program in place and at least eight senior local teams.
In the FIFA world, all you need to do is kit out a squad and enter them into the correct tournament. It is possible that last placed Anguilla could play first ranked Germany. Not likely, but possible. It would be officially sanctioned. They would be playing for rankings points. It would be a whitewash but no one would care and the records would stand.
In cricket, Ireland can’t even play Afghanistan in an official Test match, despite the fact both won games at the most recent ODI World Cup.
So, back to the question.
Would Sepp Blatter be good for cricket? Surely.
Any administrator that decentralises power opens the door of opportunity to newer and less powerful nations to become involved.
Okay, their vote may be bought, but at least they have a vote to sell, and where someone has a vote participation and interest increase. More people play the game, more money is generated in the game, TV rights increase, competitions increase and the standard of the product increases.
As I write, 53,000 people are watching Canada host China in the FIFA Women’s World Cup. It is the biggest crowd ever to attend a sporting event in Canada. Football has been opened up to the world and results show that it has paid dividends.
The irony that Test cricket is the hardest game to qualify to play for, yet is the one dying fastest should be lost to no one.
So Sepp, we welcome you with open arms. Please, bring the USA into cricket like you have with football. I want to watch it on ESPN, not just read it on Cricinfo.
Please Sepp, let’s have Brazil, China, Spain and Cameroon all playing Test cricket.
Sepp, Indonesia would love to start a T20 league. Can you make it happen?
It is all so simple.
Statistic Skeptic
Guest
Wikipedia suggests that it isn't even the highest soccer attendance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Stadium_(Montreal)#Facts_and_figures 72,000 for the final of the football at the 1976 Summer Olympics
Statistic Skeptic
Guest
To give the ICC their due - there is currently a four day match international competition going on involving Ireland, Hong Kong, Scotland, Afghanistan, UAE and Namibia - http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-intercontinental-cup-2015-17/content/series/870857.html
Snickometero
Guest
"As I write, 53,000 people are watching Canada host China in the FIFA Women’s World Cup. It is the biggest crowd ever to attend a sporting event in Canada." No...... it isn't.
Jack Russell
Roar Guru
A lot of it comes down to the sanctity of statistics in cricket. Many cricket purists would see a player from Nepal racking up a test average of 150 playing against Uganda, Jersey and Singapore a travesty. In soccer few people care about such stats. I'm pretty sure Archie Thompson still holds the record for most goals in an international, yet most of the world would never have heard of him. And even if they have, it's more the novelty of it than any serious regard for his ability. In the end, it gets in the way of giving nations not at the top level in cricket the same status. They can't play test matches, they can't play one day internationals. Other than stats, I can't think of any reason why the national teams of ICC member nations couldn't play a test match.
SM
Guest
It's the one area where cricket is decades behind football. When João Havelange was elected FIFA president in 1974, he opened football up beyond western Europe and South America to the point where it truly, forever more, became the world's game. I really cannot understand this idea the closed shop we see in cricket and rugby (a sport I don't really follow, admittedly) where it's the bigger countries conducting themselves solely in a manner which protects their own interests. Added to this, we've got governing bodies who seemingly cannot or are unwilling to do anything about it. It's a strange state of affairs, but it will certainly hold these games back in the long run. If I've got this wrong then I'm happy to be corrected.
midfielder
Guest
CW For the most part FIFA is not corrupt it's at the top and hughly so but the day to day working are excellent.
CW
Guest
I must admit as a cricket purist .I love having a shot at the ICC when it warrants it. On their website they state that: the various white ball and red ball cricket now being played by Associate members "showcases world cricket's growing pool of talent". How is having only eight of a known 38 AS members being eligible to play the Intercontinental Cup...growing world cricket? The ICC is pulling the wool over our eyes. What are the other 30 AS nations doing in the meantime? Remember the ICC is supposed to be the custodian of our great game. Make up your own mind.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH goes the point.
CW
Guest
Further to previous post. It should have read. "the winner of the 2015-17 Intercontinental Cup".
CW
Guest
Cricket has enough corruption in it already. Sepp Blatter presided over a corrupt- riddled FIFA. So why the hell would the ICC want him? Rightly so. He fell on his sword. He finally realised that as boss of FIFA the buck stopped with him. Rather than headhunt a former footy boss. Why not just adopt some of the excellent policies that FIFA used to better globalize their game. ICC sure needs a good shake up.
Markmako
Guest
Not so sure about this....might be better to not have ANY corruption, or corrupt people....just get on with the game!
CW
Guest
You were no quite correct on one point. Most of what the ICC does can be viewed as being detrimental to the globalization of our great game. For instance. eg. the 2019 World Cup. But there is now one slight glimmer of lite at the end of the tunnel. The recent decision to allow the winner of the 2018 Intercontinetal Cup,,a first class series played by Associate members, to play a test match against the weakest of the test playing nations. Here we see at least a pathway to test cricket for about those, mainly European nations, who are ranked below only our current 10 test playing nations. It must also be noted that Ireland and Afghanistan have now reached ODI status.As they leave the lower tier they are naturally replaced by another two Affiliate Member nations.. One of which is Nepal. So change is happening slowly. But it is happening.
Geoff Parkes
Expert
Thanks Dennis, an interesting point, really well made.
Jack Russell
Roar Guru
True, but they are open about it. You're confusing corruption with incompetence.
midfielder
Guest
Astute very very very astute ... One word brought Step down ... Qatar ... Also huge amounts of FIFA revenue has gone to poor nations to develop Football in those nations ... Unlike cricket where the revenue stays mainly in a few key nations. The huge advantage Football has is most countries have their own domestic competitions that find most things whereas Cricket has mainly national teams..
CD
Guest
Excellent article. The ICC is far more corrupt than FIFA in some ways - the most important being that their aim is short term financial gain with centralisation of power which rules over the long term interests and health of the game. Its frankly embarrassing, the best example is the 2019 Ten team WC (despite having over 100 members in the ICC), the only world cup that is contracting and not expanding. Cricket is the only sport which looks scornfully at the development of its new countries such as Ireland, Afghanistan and Nepal rather than accepting them into the fold.