From Faisal Jafri, Pakistan
I thought I understood the game of cricket-having played it for most of my life and certainly watched for the rest. I also foolishly assumed that those in charge of the game understood it.
Over the last few weeks strange things have happened in the game that make me very uneasy about its future. An international team is attacked in Lahore-thankfully most of the players escape unhurt. Those in charge of the game in Pakistan and those in charge of the government proceed to make a fool of themselves by making stupid remarks about security, taking people on and calling them liars. If that was not enough Mr. Modi of the IPL, afraid that his millions are in jeopardy, decides that India is India and Pakistan is Pakistan and India is a 'terrorist proof' country. The horrific and highly condemnable Mumbai incident is of course forgotten when millions are at stake. Perhaps a more responsible statement is expected from someone in 'control' and parallels need not be resorted to when making or trying to make a point.
The icing on the cake came from the highest office of control of cricket in the world. The Champions Trophy is moved from Sir Lanka because the country could not ensure that there will no rain during the tournament. Whats going on? If that sort of assurance was required why is the current series between India and New Zealand being played where every match so far has been rain affected?
Cricket has always had rain offs and weather interruptions as the part of the culture. How can anyone give such assurances? Obviously the general public is thought of as fools and not sensible enough to realise that the real reason which I think is security has been camouflaged by weather concerns. The Sri Lankan boards weakness in this regard has allowed the farce to be carried through without too much ado. Mr. Lorgat has even thanked them for their understanding!
Cricket is a game I love handed down at least in my family from generation to generation. I am afraid that if this state of affairs continues that game will be left in such a state that it may no longer be worth handing down to the next generation.
When I was playing cricket one of my favourite sayings, apart from 'howzat?' was "rain saves.." (whatever team I was playing for) especially when we were nine down and I was batting ten. Let all tournaments be played in England, Oz and SA, who cares? The tournament which Sri Lanka won was a joke, because the Aussies and Windies wouldn't play there, likewise the nonsense in Zimbabwe, just have the WC in Australia or England or the Windies, then every team has to play every game, the only WC that was honestly played out was the 92 series in OZ and NZ. Yeah and the 99 tournament in England. Guess who made the final both times? And you will never see Kenya make the second round ever again , which is as it should be. The 87 WC, where both host nations lost out to England and Australia, will remain a beautiful memory which will never ,ever return again.
Addressing Mr.waterbuffalo:
I don't see the merit in claiming that the 92 WC was the only one played out honestly. You've got to remember that there were 2 factors distorting the final result - Pakistan required atleast 1 point in their final league match vs England to qualify for the Semi finals. They were dismissed for 74 all out, and rain intervened before England could bat, giving Pakistan a free ride to the semis.
There too, SA lost to England due to a farcical rain rule (22 off 1 ball!). So we had a final where Pakistan, a team that made it there on luck, faced off against England, a team that also made it on luck!
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