Of Indian Illegal betting & South African ICC reverse strokes

A few hours after being elected the first chairman of the International Cricket Council, came the damning news that his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyaapan was guilty of illegal betting in the last Indian Premier League and allegations of match-fixing against him should be further probed.

With that news started the cry for N. Srinivasan to step down from his new post. But Srinivasan is not an easy nut to crack and whatever the noise or however deafening the cry, Srinivasan will stay put at the wicket.

However, Srinivasan is not lacking for want of support. His supporters say that he himself has not been found guilty of anything. One supporter said that the three-member Supreme Court panel’s finding was just a report and should wait till the Supreme Court rules on the matter.

The police have also filed charges in court against Meiyappan, officials, players and bookmakers for illegal betting during the tournament. Meiyappan was the team principal of Chennai Super Kings, an IPL franchise owned by Srinivasan’s India Cement Company which team’s captain was Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

An AFP report further said that the panel headed by retired judge Mukul Mudgal, suggested that Meiyappan may have passed on team information to outsiders for illegal betting, but did not specify what information or to whom.

The panel, which submitted its report to the Supreme Court, dismissed Srinivasan’s claim that Meiyappan was merely a cricket enthusiast, saying he was the face of the franchise.

When South Africa played the reverse stroke

The much hyped, debated and scorned controversial International Cricket Council’s WORKING PAPER went the way of the Big 3 – India, Australia and England by 8 votes at the voting time in Singapore last Saturday.

The countries that earlier said they were against the WORKING PAPER - and would vote against it, Cricket South Africa, New Zealand Cricket Board, Bangladesh Cricket Board changed their stance and agreed to vote in favour.

But what was inexplicable was Cricket South Africa who was holding

steadfastly saying they will vote against changed their stance and played the ugly reverse stroke and voted in favour with Pakistan Cricket Board and Sri Lanka Cricket abstaining.

Before going on to further comment on what happened at voting time in Singapore, we would like to pat ourselves because we dared say that whatever the objections, when it comes to crunch time the BIG 3 will win the vote. And that’s exactly what happened.

SA vehement in their objections

Cricket South Africa was vehement in their objections and with Pakistan and Sri Lanka supporting, it looked like the BIG 3 were on a sticky wicket. But surreptitiously the Big 3 were laying out a good pitch for CSA to bat and on the eve of the day of voting, CSA shamelessly changed their stance and voted and the 8 votes that were required were obtained without having to raise a sweat.

Pity that Cricket South Africa could not continue to play a straight bat and support Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Had they lost the vote the BIG 3 would have fallen from grace and would have had to re-think.

It is reported that frantic attempts were made to get Sri Lanka Cricket and the Pakistan Cricket Board to join other Cricket Boards and vote in favour. But SLC and PCB were not tempted and played straight and we wonder what would be gained by abstaining now that the voting has gone in favour of the BIG 3 who will now be labelled the POWERFUL 3.

Apparently the Board of Control for Cricket in India will not take kindly to the stance taken by PCB and SLC. There are no cricketers from Pakistan playing in the mega dollar Indian Premier League. What if the BCCI tells that they would not want Sri Lankan cricketers in the IPL. We would not want to comment further on the repercussions.

The ICC revamp will see:

1. NEW EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

A five-man Executive Committee with permanent seats for India,
Australia and England will be introduced. The committee will make recommendations to the ICC Board, which remains the decision-making body.

2. SRINIVASAN TO CHAIR NEW BOARD

N. Srinivasan, President Board of Control for Cricket India, will become the ICC board chairman from July 2014.

3. NEW FINANCIAL MODEL

Full members gain greater financial recognition based on their contributions in terms of finance, their ICC history and on-field performances.

4. TEST CRICKET FUND

A Test Cricket Fund will be introduced to guarantee all 10

Test-playing nations will be in position to host a home series through to 2023.

5. FUTURE TOURS PROGRAM

Members will strike binding, bilateral agreements ‘as a matter of urgency’ with the aim of extending the program until 2023.

6. WORLD TEST CHMPIONSHIPS

Three major ICC events in each four-year cycle, with the Champions Trophy replacing the World Test Championships.

7. PATHWAY TO TEST CRICKET

The winner of the Intercontinental Cup will play-off against the bottom ranked full member with the prize of gaining Test status.

The existing full member will retain Test status.

When the Sri Lankans were stalled

After a convincing victory in the First of Two Test matches, and the heroics of Kumar Sangakkara, triple and a century, Dinesh Chandimal a century and Ajantha Mendis’ 6 for 99, the Sri Lankans thin bowling attack was exposed when they could not stuff the Bangladeshis in the second innings of the Second Test and win the Test in Chittagong.

The Bangladeshi batsmen facing a daunting first innings total of 587, batted gallantly to avert the ignominy of a follow on making a formidable score of 426 which included two centuries from Shamsur Rahman 106 and Imrul Kayes 115.

The Sri Lankans batting a second time made 305 for 4 before closing the innings sand setting Bangladesh 467 for victory or sink or swim. That they staved off defeat batting for more than a day was

creditably. They made a fighting 271 for 3 wickets to draw the Second Test. In these columns we have always preached that mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis must be persisted with in the longer versions of the game and not be thrown to the deep end in the limited over games. While it is now the fashion to toss spin bowlers into the limited overs game and even open bowling with them, it will do captains and selectors a lot of good if they endeavour to play good spinners in the longer versions of the game.

Batsmen play wired strokes

We say this because in the ‘cowboy’ games, batsmen play the wired of strokes because obtaining runs is what matters with technique thrown to the winds and spin bowlers suffer.Instead of throwing them to the wolves, match winning spin bowlers must be persisted with in the longer versions because they have more freedom to experiment and not lose their sting.Unlike in the Twent20 where they are allowed only four over and 10 overs in the 50-over game, in the longer versions they can bowl unlimited overs and experiment with each delivery to lure batsmen.

The selectors were forced to toss in mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis in the Second Test owing to the injury sustained by left arm spinner Rangana Herath. And did not Mendis have the selectors blushing. His figures of 6 for 99 where he mesmerized the Bangladeshi batsmen with a mixture of variety, underlines his value in the longer versions. When Mendis came on to bowl, the Bangladesh middle order and the tail were simply paralyzed unable to read which way he was going and fell easy prey as his 6 wickets show. It was inexplicable his not being able to build on that 6 wickets in the second innings.

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