9 December 2008

Would England have toured Pakistan?

I find it very difficult to argue with anything that Rashid Latif has said:

"Anything can happen anywhere and when teams can accept security assurances from the BCCI and government, why can't they do the same when the PCB and the government urges them to tour? The truth is no one can dare ignore the money India is putting into the game. It is nothing but greed. If India didn't have the financial clout no team would bother to go there so soon after the Mumbai attacks."

Of course no-one but those at the centre of these goings on can tell us what their real motivations are, but from the outside it appears that a huge amount of effort has been made to complete the tour in circumstances that would have stopped any thoughts of an England tour in Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka. The ECB desperately need to improve relations with the cash-rich BCCI, and the players can't be seen as reluctant to play in India when their biggest pay day lies just around the corner, potentially, in the IPL.

But do I think either the ECB or the players should be criticised for taking that view? No. In every walk of life people assess effort versus reward on a daily basis - this is no different. Going to India offers greater reward and is therefore worth a greater risk...but publicly stating that would not be a sensible thing to do.

1 comment:

Ed said...

And to ensure that they go the whole hog with the PR initiative they have now also said they will give 50% of their match fees to the families of the Mumbai victims. It's a very worthy cause and of course that is a really good thing to do, but again it's difficult not to question motives....