Lack of UDRS mars series....predictably!

Anyone that knows me probably knew this post was coming!   Once again the BCCI have proven themselves to be more stubborn then sensible, and in doing so there is the risk of some career-ending wrong decisions.   It only needs Cook or Prior to get bad ones over the rest of the summer and it could wreck a hard-worked for career.

There's too many wrong decisions in the series already to list them all, but it would be interesting to know how the umpires are feeling.   I'd be surprised if they prefer to have their howlers upheld with everyone knowing that it's a wrong decision before the batsman has even got to the changing room.

County players not allowed to practice in India

 

Interesting to see this piece saying that the BCCI don't want County players practicing in India.   At first glance it seems very over-controlling but we do always have the debate every Ashes summer in England about whether Australian batsmen should be allowed to play for Counties in the early season to get used to conditions.

 

India's loss of tourism/income will be Sri Lanka's gain by the sounds of it, as Yorkshire are going there instead.   The BCCI won't worry about that as they're rolling in cash (and I assume it wouldn't be their income anyway, although I wouldn't put it past them to charge hotels etc commission on international cricket team visits), but they may might have slightly less to roll in when the Indian tax authorities catch up with them.

BCCI double IPL lead sponsorship revenue

 

Not a bad little earner for the BCCI, who now have Pepsi lined up to take over from DLF as their IPL lead sponsor for double the money!   Perhaps they could fund the rollout of video technology across the cricketing world?!

 

BCCI thwart Indian minister on transparency....for now

While I've been otherwise engaged, the Indian minister Ajay Maken has had his Sports Bill voted out that would have enforced a certain level of transparency amongst Indian sporting bodies including the BCCI. It of course created quite a few headlines in India and it now seems that the bill will be amended in an attempt to push it through.

Overall, it seems a good thing to expect greater transparency (and therefore increase the likelihood of good practice) by sporting bodies. But I can't help feeling that there are a few specifics that seem very strange. If it is correct that the government want to enforce retirements at 70 and stipulate a percentage of ex-players, or even allow themselves a say in selection(!!!) as I saw in one report, then this is clearly going way too far.

One of my pet hates (as readers of Cricket Burble probably know) is the emphasis on giving ex-cricketers jobs instead of running Counties and National Cricket Boards like the businesses they are. So any attempt to have more or less ex-players seems crazy to me - why not interview people on their suitability for the business-based role? If you're going to stipulate anything in terms of experience (which I wouldn't) then ten years+ of business experience wouldn't go amiss. An understanding of sport (ideally cricket) is of course required, but that is very much secondary to the business expertise required.

The business focus can be taken too far as Alan Hamer has shown in his mis-handling of Glamorgan. The assumption when Alviro Petersen was signed was that there was a long-term strategy in place but it appears not as Glamorgan are now trying to work out who their captain will be next year - either home grown pros or Marcus North of Australia it seems. Hamer's actions have actually left Glamorgan in a worse place than they were a year ago and shows what happens when business people push for unrealistic instant success football-style. They've fared badly in 40 and 20 over cricket and are in the bottom half of division 2 rather than being promoted which looked likely at the end of last season. Whatever amount of money Glamorgan make this year (or loss), it would have been better had there been a more gradual change to playing staff, captain and coach with a long-term vision in mind.

It will be interesting to see whether an amended Sports Bill makes it through India's parliament, but whether in India, England or anywhere else, the less the better in terms of enforced percentages of ex-players, enforced retirement ages, etc - just assess people on merit against each other and may the best man or woman win and take the sport forwards.

Shastri and Gavaskar BCCI employees

There seems some genuine surprise at the fact that Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar are paid by the BCCI for some of their commentary work. I don't think it's that surprising given, as ex-India spinner Maninder Singh has said "It's symptomatic of what the country is going through. There are scams, corruption in every sphere of life and cricket is no different." If you've ever been to India you'll recognise and understand that sentiment.

Surprising or not, I do think the amount they're paid is obscene. 3.6 crore, which I believe is £4,896,000 [this is actually 10 times too much - see comments!]. It doesn't seem a justifiable amount for an annual salary for any role, but certainly not cricket commentary. So the assumption I find it hard to avoid considering is that they must be being paid that much to ensure that they say exactly what the BCCI would like them to say - it would be interesting to hear what other explanation there is for that much money being paid for an ordinary commentary role?

Interesting to see that Shastri's intransigence around the UDRS, echoing that of the BCCI, is now being called into question. His little spat with Nasser Hussain made me laugh - first Hussain references the fact he has played 96 Tests as a reason why he's allowed to voice an opinion about the BCCI....surely it's the fact that he is a commentator and his role is, as Geoff Boycott isn't shy of reminding us, to comment. Who cares how many Tests he has or hasn't played?

And then Shastri's retort...."India has every right to take it or not". Erm, not really - ever heard of democracy Ravi? The ICC members should be putting it to a blind vote and then implementing the UDRS. One of the reasons the BCCI gave for not implementing the UDRS a while back was that it cost too much. Perhaps a bit of a cut back on paying back-handers to commentators fellas, and then you wouldn't just be able to pay for the technology for India's home series, you'd be able to pay for the low-income nations to use it too. Now that really would be fantastic leadership of the game of cricket.

End of rotation for ICC Presidents?

While in general I'm in favour of selecting people on merit rather than a rotation basis, the timing of a potential change from the ICC's current rotation policy (although it wouldn't come into force until 2015) couldn't come at a worse time for those that think that India already effectively run the ICC. A change to voting for the ICC President will presumably mean a succession if Indian Presidents, and what are the chances of finding someone from India who isn't beholdent to the BCCI first and the ICC second? Zero sadly.

IPL backlash?

Is it just me or is there a current feeling of negativity towards the IPL and the BCCI? I mentioned that the IPL hadn't been a total success this year and also that some, like Tony Greig, have started to question the BCCI's seemingly self-centred objectives given that the IPL over-runs the international season.

Now Arjuna Ranatunga has waded in with similar comments and a FICA survey highlights concerns about the BCCI's control of the game. It will be interesting to see if the BCCI listen to any of this negative feedback and adjust, or just keep marching forward in the pursuit of more rupees at the possible expense of the interntional game. What most worries me is the comparison Ranatunga gives with football, where club dominates country. That's not a model for the BCCI to admire, that's a model that it must do it's utmost to steer cricket away from.

IPL finally over

I'm told that the IPL is over. I can't really remember how long ago it began but it seems months ago. I doubt the BCCI will consider constructive feedback about the duration of the event, but what they might do is listen to the fact that even in cricket mad India the public have got a little bit fatigued by too much cricket. Pubs have reported much lower audiences for IPL matches and in some cases they've stopped showing the IPL. And the huge number of games means that the BCCI have made more money than last year from advertisers I hear, but is it significant that they've made less per advert?

Personally I'm just thankful it's all finally over...

BCCI looking for more money

Not surprisingly, World Sport Group, that purchased the rights to the IPL for 10 years in 2008 for $1.5b are a little concerned that the BCCI might be selling the rights again! I imagine someone at the BCCI has done the maths:

Greater sales price - legal fees = greater profit than the existing deal with WSG!

I look forward to them ploughing money into technology for the UDRS. Pigs might fly.

Cricket betting in India

Betting is of course illegal in India but if Jacques Rogge, the IOC President, gets his way then the sport governing body will receive a cut of betting revenues. I imagine that in that scenario the BCCI would be able to quickly change the Indian government's views on betting and it would soon be legalised...

India lag way behind the rest on UDRS

Time and again India say that they aren't happy with the accuracy of technology and therefore won't use it. But then Dhoni continually criticises the umpires for wrong decisions, and it's proven there are more wrong decisions without the UDRS than with it. The fact that India or any other country are allowed to decide if they use technology leaves the ICC rightly open to criticism, not to mention the fact that the players can use reviews and technology isn't used whenever the umpires want it.

Personally I hope the ICC and India see sense soon because the use of the UDRS in some matches just makes it even clearer when mistakes are made in non-UDRS matches. India won by one run against South Africa in their last ODI match but during the chase South African's Johan Botha edged the ball down to 3rd man for a single, only to be given out LBW despite the fact the ball had missed the pad completely. You could easily argue that just that one wrong decision changed the result and South Africa will now go into the World Cup again trying to get rid of the chokers tag, perhaps unfairly in this case.

And anyone reading the New Zealand v Pakistan bulletins couldn't do so without reading about regular umpiring howlers. The latest of the 7 wrong decisions in the first 3 days was Younis Khan who, with Misbah, was going to open up a significant lead for Pakistan in all probability. Instead, he was given caught off the pad and Pakistan lost 6 wickets for 90odd to finish their innings.

Be patient cricket lovers from all around the world. Even the BCCI and ICC will catch up eventually. It would be great for the game if India go out of the World Cup due to an umpiring howler in a tight match as that might finally get the BCCI out of the dark ages, but assuming that doesn't happen, on present form it may be 2020 before the BCCI and ICC get themselves sorted out....

Umpiring error hurts India

Jesse Ryder and Kane Williamson batted for the afternoon and evening sessions against India today to help New Zealand fight against India (Ryder was out for 103 from the final ball of the day). But India will be ruing the fact they haven't got the UDRS - Williamson was blatantly caught behind in the 50s and not given.

The more that happens to India while the BCCI refuse to implement the UDRS the better, as far as I'm concerned....

There's no legislating for idiots...

I've written before about how leadership is about doing things before everyone is calling for them to happen and all the market research backs the potential action. Sometimes even good leaders get decisions wrong because there is a risk attached to being visionary. Management is risk free and is about responding to what everyone is calling for already and making it happen. Successful leaders get paid more than managers for obvious reasons.

I'm not quite sure what you call the BCCI. Laggards is one word. Or idiots is another. They have not only proved themselves incapable leaders on the UDRS issue, but also poor managers, given that they're still putting off the inevitable by not using the UDRS in their up coming New Zealand series even after error-ridden umpiring in their recent Australia Test. When they finally get round to it, which they inevitably will, they will have lost even more credibility. Indian cricket supporters might consider that the BCCI staff wages should be dropped to be comparable with others that can't lead or manage....

BCCI reject technology again

Interesting to read the match report from Sri Lanka's win over India in the tri-series final. It appears there were a multitude of umpiring errors, and yet the BCCI aren't up for ensuring greater accuracy in their series against Australia. I hope they catch up with the rest of the cricketing world sooner rather than later....it sounds like Paul Hawkins is happy to sit down with India's leading players if necessary.

Chappell's view on UDRS

Ian Chappell is against the use of technology to increase the accuracy of umpiring decisions, but he has written a sensible piece on Cricinfo on the use - or not - of the UDRS. He says "Like a lot of decisions made by cricket administrators, the umpire review system wasn't fully thought through before it was implemented" which sadly is correct, but there is still time for history to record a successful move to implement the available technology of the day when looking back in several decades time.

However, while the BCCI refuse to implement it despite having more cash than many a small island, it doesn't bode well....

India aim to recover from Zimbabwe losses

India have accepted a request from Sachin Tendulkar to spend more time at home rather than play in the Asia Cup and have tweaked their squad considerably having been humbled by Zimbabwe twice recently. Great to see that Zimbabwe are competing well, even considering the weakened teams that India and Sri Lanka selected. But India will need to get back to winning ways quickly to satify their public and it seems Yuvraj has been jettisoned by the BCCI following a series of insipid performances.

There seems great disappointment that India won't be sending a cricket team to the Olympics - perhaps Yuvraj can lead a second string team if he isn't playing in the 1st team.

Modi and the IPL - where to start?

It really is tricky to work it all out amongst the various allegations being made in the media. My summary would be:

- such huge success was always going to come under immense scrutiny so if Modi wasn't 100% above board with his financial dealings then he's not only greedy but stupid
- it was inevitable given the regular infighting and politics in Indian cricket that others would want part of the action
- it's not going to mean the immediate end to the IPL - there's too much money at stake and no other country has the interest and volume of people to challenge India in holding a similar tournament - but it could mean that it changes shape/approach
- if the tournament can be cut down as a result then some good will have come out of it - 6 weeks is a massive and unnecessarily long distraction from the most important cricket action of all - internationals!
- I wonder what Kapil Dev (who championed the ICL but was outmanoeuvred by Modi and the BCCI) makes of all this?
- If Modi is corrupt, Indian's have nothing to be ashamed of (many Indian observers appear embarrassed by what Modi is rumoured to have done) - corruption exists in all countries and everyone isn't to blame for individual weaknesses.

Champions League dates - what's the problem?

It's not easy to find out exact dates of future fixtures it seems - give it a try and you're a better man that I if you can work out the exact date that the first match of the 7 match ODI series between India and Australia is on October. Looking at the ICC's future tour programme spreadsheet, it looks like it doesn't start until the second week of October - i.e. w/c 11th October.


Now looking at the English county fixtures, it looks like they finish 18th September. If you want to worry about the Pakistan ODIs that England play - I suppose the ECB have to given existing sponsorship and TV deals - they finish on 22nd September. So the Champions League could quite easily start on Friday 24th September and finish Monday 11th October (apparently it needs 17 days as the dates suggested are 10th-26th September). That would allow India to play their series against Australia by the end of October, starting towards the end of w/c 11th.


Rather than reluctantly having to be unavailable, English counties shouldn't need to. India should be moving back their ODI series against Australia and stop suggesting that they have no flexibility over the 2nd October apparent start date.


The problem here is that the ICC is powerless. They should be able to instruct India to change their dates and avoid this problem altogether, but they...like everyone else...has to bow to India's money and work around them.

Taxing the BCCI

The interesting thing about this article that says the BCCI will now pay tax, is the fact they thought they could get away with "charitable" status!!

BCCI go in too high

I suppose there shouldn't be too much surprise that the BCCI have priced the sponsorship rights to the Indian team too high to get any offers. But it's happened all the same.