Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque :
The development of colourful cricket is contemporaneous with the globalization of cricket. This kingly game, once a pass time of the members of aristocratic families, is stumbling on to sorry state of affairs. Cricket, especially test, has been a tradition since time immemorial. The scion of aristocratic lineage in England contributed to the development of cricket. Subsequently it became popular in the subcontinent once ruled by the British Raj. Most cricket players and elites of cricket clubs, born in the purple, were members of the Nawbabs and Maharajas and some title holding families in British India. In other expression, of course proverbial, children and adolescents of traditional dominant families genealogically connected with aristocracy are genetically cricketers or born cricketers having cricket blood. The father of Cricket GW Grace would perhaps like to upkeep all good traditions anchored in cricket. MCC shaped up the dreams of the forerunners of cricket with ICC nourishing and institutionalizing cricket with well set rules and codes of conduct. Of course, the rules of the game are updated if necessary.
The lovers of cricket want that crickets be played in ideal settings. They expected the cricketers to be dedicated ones upholding the spirit of professionalism. Cricket has its own style of manifestation reflecting its own character with idiosyncratic features. Whether ideal type of cricket as found in classical cricket like test still exists? We are afraid legacies of cricket are gradually evaporating under the impact of commercialization of cricket that begets its criminalization process. Is cricket a lucrative trade or game? The cricket players are expected to love cricket from the core of heart all with cricket mind and temperament. Distressingly the way the actors in management structure and the players are conducting themselves under the intoxication of money power is sure to destroy the image of cricket. What we see now days is kriket not cricket.
Degeneration has crept in so-called cricket in the wake of commercialization. Kerry Packer who introduced fifty-fifty one day night cricket set the tone of modernization of cricket and thus paved the way to its degeneration. There was a saying that Kerry Packer staged Packer circus enticing many veteran test players to join the circus with heavy cash allurements. He was charged with breaking conventional cricket thus polluting cricket environment. The circus he arranged was called Packer circus.
Now cricket has been disarrayed by the unethical and corrupt practices. There happens to be so many crickets with a glut of everything for money. TV also attracts the cricket stars and many have appeared in commercial advertisement as models. How funny! Cricket bonanza has become intrinsically linked with money bonanza thus making rooms for all unhealthy probabilities. The looming shadow of the influence of Packer’s show over cricket has been marked by the introduction of ultra-modern cricket with much fanfare- decoration, music and dances. ICL appeared in the scenario holding sway for sometime and those joining there were termed rival cricketers by the Board and ICC. ICL ban hit national crickets with a small pool of talented crickters. Later on IPL were introduced to neutralize the influence of ICL.
True India has been charged with the role of manipulation of cricket arena so far as T-20 and fifty over matches are concerned. ICC perhaps cannot really control cricket all with fairness. India continues to dictate terms and conditions as the largest country among cricket playing countries. Naturally, ICC has become subservient to Indian hegemony only considering huge money. I admit India won World Cup in 2011. Thanks to its excellent batting line up and bowling suiting Asian conditions. In bouncy wickets existing in Australia and New Zealand the hosts are expected to dominate. India remains unbeaten rising to semi final in 2015 World Cup. Bangladesh performed well throwing down a gauntlet to its mighty opponents among elite club. But the way the umpires treated Bangladesh in the quarter final all with partiality and nepotism going in favor of India was really eye boggling. I have heared that the original venue of India Bangladsh encouter was shifted to Melbourne (MCG) to the advantage of team India. According to news reports:
Hundreds of Bangladesh cricket supporters burnt an effigy of Pakistani cricket umpire Aleem Dar and marched in the capital Dhaka after the country was knocked out of the World Cup. They chanted “Shame, Shame. No to ICC conspiracy,” as they shouted slogans against the umpires and the International Cricket Council after Bangladesh’s best ever World Cup came to an end following a 109-run defeat against India. Opener Rohit Sharma top-scored with 137 off 126 balls and Suresh Raina hit a rapid-fire 65 from 57 balls as India posted a daunting total of 302 in the quarter-final in Melbourne that took the match away from Bangladesh. But Bangladeshi fans were furious after player-of-the-match Sharma got a big break on 90 when he holed out to deep mid-wicket off Rubel Hossain, only for Dar and fellow umpire Ian Gould to signal a no-ball for what appeared to be a legitimate below waist-high delivery. Fans also protested two other decisions including a catch against Bangladesh’s best batsman Mohammad Mahmudullah that snuffled out any hope for a comeback by the Tigers.
Some Dhaka University students commented like ‘The umpires were biased. We did not mind if we had been beaten legitimately. But this is pure robbery. We protest these bad decisions.’ Another student held a placard that dubbed the ICC as the ‘Indian Cricket Council’, not International Cricket Council.” It was India’s money that forced the ICC to work against us. So it’s fair to call it Indian Cricket Council.”
“Bangladesh is a victim of international conspiracy,” another protester shouted, as live footage of the protests were broadcast live. Facebook and Twitter were flooded with comments on the “biased” decisions although most also applauded the Tigers for their best ever World Cup performance.”What we saw today, on three separate occasions, was the Bangladesh team denied a fair hearing.”I’ll just talk about the no-ball, since that was the most blatant, and probably the most influential decision,” a “What naked partiality!!! Shame on you!!!
Protest demonstration against such an evil design rocked the country to its depth. We all stood thick and thin with our challenge against unfair and criminalized cricket. Ganajagarani Moncho rose to occasion to organize protest rally condemning ICC for staging a mockery expressing solidarity with team Bangladesh.
Cricket has been taken over by mafia circle and criminal syndicates of match fixer. Even I doubt Match between South Africa and Pakistan was not a fair one in 2015 World Cup. For the intension of South Africa was not difficult to be sensed. Perhaps, it wished to help Pakistan to obtain quarter final berth to beat mighty Australia. The match was perhaps fixed intended to complicate the equation for moving into the elimination round. This match needs to be reviewed by ICC.
We have passed a host of eventful moments in the realm of cricket. Our cricket fans in Bangladesh were lost in wild jubilation with much fanfare outside the stadiums. Their craze found no limit. Even then they demonstrated a high sense of discipline helping the volunteers to maintain peace and order. The selected venues for the T-Twenty World Cup wore a festive look with news and electronic media highlighting the moments in a befitting manner. The cricket venues looked wedding place with dazzling colours streets were decorated with an extra coat of paint.
This happened to be the fifth ICC T-Twenty competition, an international Twenty20 cricket tournament that took place in Bangladesh from 16 March to 6 April 2014, which was won by Sri Lank. It was played in three cities – Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet. ICC announced Bangladesh as host in 2010. It was the second consecutive time that an Asian country is hosting this event, as Srilanka hosted previous tournament in 2012. Sri Lanka won the tournament, defeating India by 6 wickets in the final at Mirpur.
For the first time, the tournament featured 16 teams. All ten full members qualified automatically, and are joined by six associate members who qualified through the 2013 ICC TT qualifier. The top eight teams in the ICC TT championship rankings on 8 October 2012 – who are all full members – entered at the super 10 stage. The remaining eight teams competed in the group stage from which two teams advanced to the Super 10 stage. My son witnessed most important matches in Dhaka accompaned by his uncle. I took him to Zahur Ahmed stadium in Chittagong to enjoy match against South Africa.
The defeat of Bangladesh in the quarter final in 2015 world cup immensely pained all of us. In fact, Bangladesh team was victim of Umpires’ unfairness and partiality. We doubt the stage was well set with evil design. ICC perhaps feared that in case of fair umpiring Bangladesh with superb performance might beat India to go up to semi final. The apprehension stemmed from the fact that the tigers registered a victory against England in pool A with Rubel showing astouding performance. The day was a red letter day to me and my son who watched the match all along. The target set at 275 was not a big in in a perfect batting track. Bangladeshi bowlers performed well maintaning tight line and length. As a result wicket fell at regular interval making the target unreachable – thanks to Mushrafi, Rubel, Shakib and Taskin. Mahmudullah deserves commendation for scientillating century to become man of the match. The victory was a turning point in the history of Bangladesh cricket. Hip Hip Hurreh. Even it was about to beat unbeaten New Zealand. setting a challenging score of 289. Definitely Bangladesh cricket team is rising to scale. The tigers await heroic welcome coming back from Australia.
(Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque, Professor, Department of Public Administration, Chittagong University)
