Thursday, April 03, 2008

Can we hate the BCCI more?

Of course we can, you goons! We already think that they are evil, bastards and even Nazis, but now it seems they are hypocrites.

Mushtaq Ahmed and Rana Naved Ul Hasan have gone for the ICL. They are also a bit old looking and probably don’t have too many seasons left in them. So, like any self-respecting knakered old geezer, they are finishing of their careers in a retirement home – English county cricket.

Seems reasonable? Ah, well that would be the wrong way to look at modern cricket. You need to put on your BCCI goggles. Here, I’ll show you what their world looks like:

THEY’RE OUT TO GET US!!! THE SWINES!!! THE SWINES!!!! THEY’RE TAKING OUR MONEY!!! MONEY!!! MONEY!!! WE MUST DESTROY THEM!!!! DESTROY THEM ALL!!! MONEY!!!

OK – you can take them off now. As you can see, it’s a heady vission, but it works for the BCCI.

Now, let us take another, seemingly unrelated episode: the Shoaib Akhtar affair.

Our ol’ mucker, Shoaib, is clearly mad. He attacks his fellow team mates with bats, insults his bosses and has generally made an idiot of himself for years. The PCB then metered out a five year ban.

The severity of this punishment obvious underlies the mismanagement of Pakistani cricket. Administrators cite “his continued attitude problems” as the reason. Imagine if all our bosses took this view: the Western economy would collapse.

Anyway, the PCB has banned Shoaib. So we can consider his career over. Wait…what’s this? He can still play in the IPL? That seems curious.

You would think that, given the BCCI’s stance on Mushie and Rana that they would, for the sake of consistency, apply the same standard to other players. Ah, but then you wouldn’t be wearing your goggles, would you? Reciprocity doesn’t happen when you wear your BCCI goggles, look:

OURS!!! HE’S OUR WIFE NOW!!1 MONEY!!! YOU CAN’T HAVE ANYTHING!!! GIVE IT ALL TO US!!! IT’S OURS!!!! EVERYTHING IS OURS!! MONEY!!!! MONEY!!!

9 comments:

straight point said...

althogh i am big basher of bcci too...bt i think more than BCCI you should hate PCB and ECB more for this...for knowtowing and agreeing...

and if there is an agreement in place (bad or good) between ALL boards dont you think its bit foolish/childish to blame only ONE board??

just a thought...

straight point said...

...and also polite reminder...IPL is approved and authorised by ICC...

Anonymous said...

The PCB in the case of Rana and Mushy, should be applauded.

They said that they don't play for Pakistan, so they have no problem in them receiving an NOC (no objection certificate).
Now they have that, they are free to play in the county championship.

The Atheist said...

Oh, I agree with you, SP, the other boards (aside from the PCB, as Swarvy has pointed out) are generally weak. But they are all infected with the idea that cricket is about the maximisation of profit.

However, I think that there is a general view, rightly or wrongly, that the Indian cricket, and the attitudes in its administration, are taking over the world. Thus, the BCCI is the big target.

So, fair game, in my view.

straight point said...

according to news filtering out shoaib wont be able to play in IPL till the ban on him is lifted...

since your argument was based on this...is it fair now???

John said...

SP,
The very fact that the IPL is trying to restrict a player from playing where he wants to, makes the BCCI evil. As evil as several loathsome economic powerhouses that we deride for their participation in market abuse. If Shane Bond joins the ICL, the BCCI has no business forcing the NZ board to not play him if he qualifies for the national team.And the NZ board is not doing the job its supposed to do, if it kotows.

Similar with all the 'rebel' ICL players. It is really unfair that someone like Ambatti Rayudu does not have a shot at the Indian team. These things are clearly illegal, but until the judiciary steps in, which could take really long in India, several careers are severely harmpered.

BCCI are evil. We don't need to go into the question of how the policy applies to individual players, when the policy itself is the eviles thing in cricket.

The Atheist said...

Clearly they're reading this blog. Which means that they can't be all evil.

Anonymous said...

Why do BCCI or ECB or ICC want so much money? They run a sport, they have no obligations to shareholders to make profit. It doesn't make any sense, unless the BCCI are evil. Then it makes sense.

The good news is I realised Twenty20 can never kill off Test cricket. They need each other. Twenty20 can't create heroes - it can only milk them. Test cricket creates the heroes. A bit off the Atheist's point, but I do believe the IPL, as a weapon for world domination, is not as powerful as BCCI hope...

Samir Chopra said...

I think if someone were to start a new dot.com dedicated to manufacturing effigies of BCCI members and shipping them by post to disgruntled cricket fans, they could attract some serious venture capital.