28.01.2014 Killing cricket
Not since that divisive enterprise known to us as the ‘Packer Circus’ has cricket faced a crisis of a magnitude that has the potential to change the course of its history. At least not till earlier this month when revelations were made about a blatant bid to hijack international cricket by a group of businessmen with little love for this great sport. The ambitious triumvirate headed by the money-and-power-hungry Indian cricket board (BCCI) has England and Australia as it members. The so-called ‘Big Three’ are already the richest and most powerful cricket boards in international cricket. But a working paper drafted by the ICC's Finance & Commercial Affairs (F&CA) committee, the secret details of which have now become the subject of extensive debate in the cricket world, sheds light on their bid to grab a veto, become richer and even more powerful. And the wealth and power they are targeting will come at the expense of other major cricketing nations like South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and West Indies – effectively confining them to a second-tier status and eliminating the minnows altogether. Taking a dispassionate view of the whole plan, it can be argued that when it comes to the financial bottom line this makes sense. After all, a major chunk of the money that is pumped into international cricket comes from India so it’s no big deal if the BCCI wants a bigger share in the pie. But if you are a true cricket fan, it’s next to impossible to have a dispassionate line on what is truly a hostile bid to take over international cricket. After all, what’s the point in following a sport if there is no passion involved?
The most iniquitous part of the entire plan is that the cricket chiefs of the three countries involved are trying to impose a cold conspiracy hatched in a basement-type deal on the rest of the cricketing world. Their justification: because we are cricket’s big earners we will have a bigger share of the wealth, as well as sweeping powers in the ICC. If the plan is accepted then any notion of having a level playing field for all teams is Utopian. Any dreams of cricket transforming itself into a truly global sport will fizzle into thin air. The idea of extending it to populated countries like China will also evaporate under the debris of greed. That is why no matter how hard it may seem, other cricket boards will have to resist this move with all they’ve got. It will be a grand battle for survival but fight they must. We have to draw a line between the soul of a sport and the financial bottom line. The money part related to any sport is important in today’s world but it cannot be allowed to tower over everything else. Examples of other big sports like football must be kept in view. After all we are talking about sport, not a shoe-making factory.
A dream betrayed
The third anniversary of the uprising which forced Hosni Mubarak out of office was like any other day in Egypt. Different sides gathered as many of their people as they could and took them out on the streets. There were predictable skirmishes between the groups and security officers. And another 50 people were killed. This has become a depressing pattern of daily life in Egypt after the false hope of the Arab Spring. On the one side there are the supporters of military rule, who have now taken to urging army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to run for president. Then there are those from the Muslim Brotherhood, understandably furious that the military overthrew their president Mohamed Morsi and then outlawed the only organised political party in the country, denouncing it as a terrorist organisation. It is safe to say that Egypt today is a lot like it was under Mubarak – but even worse. Mubarak was mocked around the world for holding referendums on his rule where he would invariably garner close to 100 percent of the votes. That laughable trend is back as the constitution prepared by the military-backed interim government received over 98 percent approval. Should results continue to be manipulated in such an obvious way, Egypt will not be able to taste the democracy it had for such an enticingly short period.
The interim government is still tinkering on the edges even as the machinery of state has broken down. It decided, for example, to hold presidential elections before parliamentary elections, thereby amending the roadmap to democracy laid down last year. None of these cosmetic changes will make a difference, though, so long as the Muslim Brotherhood remains banned and unable to compete in elections. Democracy without the participation of the largest political party in the country is not worth the name. And as long as the Brotherhood retains the street power to protest its repression, Egypt will not be able to return to a state of normalcy. The military is brutal in crushing any signs of resistance to its takeover and the Brotherhood, having survived decades of abuse from the state, is not going to back down without a fight. The dream of the revolution may have soured and the misguided rule of Morsi had a lot to do with that. But the military, were it actually the guardian of democracy it claimed to be, would have known that democracy needs many years to evolve. By taking control of power the military has blocked the chances of democracy taking roots in Egypt.