Tony Greig v Harsha Bhogle - Is India to blame for world cricket's woes?
The former England cricket captain delivered the 2012 MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture a couple days ago, in which essentially he blamed the BCCI for all the major problems in world cricket. Unsurprisingly an Indian has contested this and although I agreed with many of Greig's criticisms, Bhogle rightly points out that the BCCI is not alone in pursuing bad policies driven by a profit motive. The only difference is the scale of the greed because of India's population which the BCCI leverages (unfairly in my view) to its advantage. But Bhogle hits the nail on the head at two points when he says "The other countries can isolate India on this front but they choose not to vote. They too put commerce ahead of conviction", while adding "...across cultures and civilisations, people have stood up and fought what they perceive to be wrong. If India is indeed wrong, the rest of the world can come together and alienate India. But they don't. Because they want Indian money but not an Indian point of view. Are they guilty of complicity then?" Bhogle goes on to explain his opposition to DRS (which incidentally I am in favour of) and offer a seemingly weak case to support the BCCI's opposition to it as well. Greig on the other hand brought to my notice the case against DRS in the form of Rodney Cavalier, current Chairman of the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust, who said: "Cricket is fantasy. It is the intersection of Heaven and Earth, it cannot ever be the slave of certainty. The essence of cricket is honour and accepting the umpire's decision." Like Greig says, it's hard to argue against a view like that but it's just as important to get the decisions correct. World cricket deserves better overall.