Quick Roundup

Before going into a detailed report on my experience at the Nehru Stadium on Thursday and celebrating the great series win over Sri Lanka let's have a quick look at what is happening in the cricket world.

1) Captain Pathetic: Shivnarine Chanderpaul has justified the criticism he received from cricket experts and fans by his continued display of clueless and directionless captaincy. After conceding a lead of 225 runs early on Day 3, the obvious thing to do was to try and get the Aussies all out within a reasonable score. Just going on the defensive and waiting for a declaration is clearly not the way to go. Shiv has done just that and the West Indies are going to suffer.

Unfortunately, Chanderpaul is not the only clueless captain going around in World Cricket at the moment. As has been evident from some of my posts earlier see 1,2 and 3 I have been extremely critical of captains all over the World. I hope Rahul Dravid of India does a better job when he gets the captaincy of the Test team. He has done well so far in ODIs but we will come to that later.

2) Another Dicey Issue: After chucking, this could well go on to be another extremely dicey issue for the ICC - the question of when a fielder is allowed to start moving in anticipation of the ball. As mentioned here, Michael Vaughan has been moving from slip to leg-slip with the ball still in flight in the warmup match against the Patron's X1 in Pakistan. He seems to think it is just fine !! I remember the catch Rajesh Chauhan took to dismiss Aravinda DeSilva in 1997 and that had become a fair controversy. I think the ICC needs to come up with clear-cut legislation on this one because it is impossible to ensure under the present circumstances that the fielders are moving legally only after the ball has been struck by the batsmen.

3) Get On With It People: Some South Africans and I stress SOME here have started whining about the whole Gibbs and Boje controversy. To these I would just like to say GIVE ME A BREAK. These people seem to imply that we are deliberately preventing these players from touring thus weakening the South Africa side. The weakening part could be true but for God's sake the players are staying away on their own free will !! They have NOT been threatened by the Indian police. They are merely willing to give no guarantees. Why should they give any guarantees ? Clearly the players are not above the law of the land. True they should demand to be treated with dignity like any person but they CANNOT demand any guarantees. If they are in the clear (Boje) and have served out their punishment (Gibbs) why should they fear ? All they have to do is assist the police by answering some questions that is going to aid there ongoing investigation.

Betting is illegal by Indian laws, while match-fixing is not. So if the players are afraid that their involvement in match-fixing would cause them to be detained or punished they shouldn't be. Rememebr the action to be taken on the erring players is entirely the prerogative of the respective Boards and not the police. Hence I believe the players are just suffering from a case of paranoia. Also it could be that they consider the Indian police and law-and-order system untrustworthy. This could be causing them to ask for a probe in a neutral country. I show them the little finger if that is the case. India is a democratic country with a proper judicial system in place and you better respect it. Or if you prefer to stay at home don't whine about it.

Just for the sake of information there has been a similar precedent in the past. In 1998 Mark Taylor and Mark Waugh toured Pakistan, appeared before the authorites and answered their interrogation and it all went off smoothly. They did not sit at home like paranoid cowards as Gibbs and Boje are doing.

Oh yeah and some people are asking about what happened to the great India South Africa friendship and whether the Indian Board should not do more to ensure the participation of the 2 players. To them I would like to mention that the BCCI did inquire of the Government if anything could be done about it, though not very forcefully. Also, the South African Board and South African Government do not care too much about this issue. I can't say I blame them. It is clear that it is simply a case of 2 paranoid, cowardly individuals being afraid to bear the consequences of their doing. And it needs to be treated just like that. We don't need them here and neither should the Proteas. Let them go to hell.