Showtime Drama at Rangiri Stadium Highlights Nervy Moments, While... Again Next Month for a Full an Environment Already Drip- Test and ODI Tour

Monday 21st June, 2010 13

Dambulla: It only needs tered 2010 programme with a couple of firebrands to India touring Sri Lanka pump up the adrenaline. In Showtime drama at Rangiri Stadium highlights nervy moments, while... again next month for a full an environment already drip- Test and ODI tour. ping with venom and action, It will be argued how it can become quite a lethal scheduling the event was a cocktail. problem. But if there are 22 And when you have two countries attached to the temperamental guys who ACC, why the discrimination won’t stand back for anyone Finding a relevant in terms of the Asia Cup. and are embroiled in verbal Why is there no tournament fisticuffs, well, Yahaluweni, for lesser nations? expect a serious collision Not a popular opinion course. It’s not polite shadow perhaps, but if the ACC was boxing and the end result formed to promote the game was how Harbhajan Singh role for the Asia Cup in Asia, the perception is told Shoaib Akhtar where to with the Asia Cup, they are get off, in what was a time ment for this year’s event. In not promoting the game in where action proved to be India and Pakistan rivalry is hardly about having friendly on-field conversation other words, they don’t want the region. We are told and stronger than words, the to admit the other countries, read there are regional direc- defining moment of the 10th whether associate or affiliate tors, coaching programmes Asia Cup. members of the ICC, count and administrations in place. Anyone watching the end for nothing. Just flags on a This is where the problem of game here at Rangiri map to make it look impres- having any of those remain- Stadium Saturday night may sive. ing 18 nations lies. have missed some of the This year’s Asia Cup has It is not all about full tight emotional and tumul- a media handbook, exposing membership nations running tuous phases of the game, some of the event’s che- the show for their own bene- but the Bhajji/Akhtar spat quered history and without fit and ignoring the rest. explained how pressure can going into details, why India, With the new sponsor- get to players. Already there the holders, didn’t attend the ship, the ACC have a duty had been Kamran Akmal 1986 (second edition) held in towards those other 18 coun- throwing his toys when Sri Lanka. Why the strained tries and promote a series of Gautam Gambhir was given relations between Pakistan qualifying tournaments. not out by Billy Doctrove. It and India meant in 1990/91, Rhetoric is cheap; it is the needed Billy Bowden, the Pakistan didn’t play in that fumes given off by the politi- senior on field umpire, to get series. cians to drive their frivolous between them to calm ten- Presently there are 22 campaigns. What is needed is sion and nerves. countries who fall under the action to support all the It explains why India and purview of the ACC, among fancy jargon that is offered in Pakistan rivalry is more them are the world’s two the name of development of about passion than having a most populous nations, India the game in Asia, not obfus- friendly passing the time of and neighbours, China, but cation in terms of a variety day chat. There was the the current format only of reasons why the tourna- Suresh Raina run out in that allows for full member coun- ment is limited to the four last over which added pas- tries of the ICC to be invited full ICC members. sion to what were already to the tournament, which has (email: overheated tempers; Akhtar been squeezed into a clut- [email protected]) and Bhajji sniping away in boys will be boys fashion. Then the six plundered over midwicket off Mohammad Aamer and the reaction of the two thespians in the sideshow: Bhajji roar- ing and glaring at Akhtar, whose hand signal message was obvious enough. Pakistan blinked first and India scooped the spoils of success. This is a place in the final against Sri Lanka. If it had been that lolly- pop event so many suckers are currently watching, the Schlep Blather show in South Africa, where there are more draws than Test cricket pro- duced in the last decade, where head butts and foul mouth types like Rooney the Looney, display the type of incendiary schizophrenic behaviour expected of such sports, there would have been pushing and shoving and a few punches. This is typical of the attitude problems you get in soccer and even specta- tors to septic type mentality. India’s Harbhajan Singh, left, argues with Pakistan’s Shoaib Aktar during the fourth Asia Cup cricket match between There will be a preview of Pakistan and India in Dambulla, Sri Lanka, Saturday, June 19, 2010. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) the final with the Sri Lanka game against India here at teams, asking who was per- What has been suggested It is very much similar to lion or so rupees and bor- Rangiri Stadium tomorrow forming well out of a set list is how this year’s Asia Cup the game the administrators rowed an idea from and at a venue where bats- of names read out on the tele- has been cobbled together in are playing by switching the England to launch a fran- men are now able to bat with phone. One coach said it was such a way it has been all 50 over format to 40 overs and chise system. The plan more freedom and confidence a strange way to select sides, about the big boys in the in some cases, Australia, was to attract big money although the lights are not up especially as they had not region and organisers splitting this further into two to the game. It is almost to international standards seen the selectors at any of innings of 20 overs. What like a giant ponzi scheme. and have been criticised by the club or provincial games The Chesterfield Files this is also achieving is dilut- In this case, the term players. Lasith Malinga, calling them. ing further the skills and eso- “trends” is all in the Gautam Gambhir and De Silva though, knows teric nuances within the mind: a media hyped pro- Mahendra Singh Dhoni. what is needed in terms of cricket environment. gramme that is also a Naturally, there have been selection policy to build a In this administrators, reality event. any number of complaints strong side. After the not just Asian, are playing This brings us back to about the makeup of the Sri Bangladesh game he fast and loose with a proven the dodgy action of the Lanka side, yet it is just a remarked how the form of product, the 50 over variety ACC in arranging this tournament, the first of sev- players for this tournament and damaging the principles event in such a way, there eral and as Aravinda de Silva cannot be judged on one or of sport without thinking was no qualification tour- pointed out, there is a need to two games, but the tourna- further then their bank bal- nament to give teams look at various players in ment as whole. The com- ances. If you look at the way such as Afghanistan a various situations. There are ments were aimed at showing the administrators, seduced chance to display their only eleven places available support for Chamara by the Indian Premier capabilities. Their two- and those throwing brickbats Kapugedara, Farveez League and its lollypop crick- year journey has been at the selectors are not seeing Maharoof and Muttiah et spin-offs, they are behav- well documented by the the broader picture. Muralitharan, who did not ing as though they are the BBC through a thoughtful One question that should have memorable games lords and masters of its televised programme. It be asked is how many of the against Pakistan in the open- future. has also been handled by critics have been watching ing match of the 10-dy tour- BY TREVOR CHESTERFIELD This is scary.What we are those who have egalitari- club and provincial cricket to nament. seeing are administrators an principles and care make such assumptions. It “We consider these play- eschewing their smaller putting the future if the about people from a war- gets annoying when names ers as part of the team and cousins. As such, it explains game at risk without long- ravaged nation. are thrown around because patience is needed in respect the dangerous game that cur- term thinking with those Afghanistan’s path to of what is seen on television of their form and ability to rent Asian administrators largely involved in this deci- cricket glory is a miracle at international games and perform. There are times are playing. sion-making racket being the journey: a nation with no not at the grounds where players can have good games There is no place for the chief executive officers of genuine cricket culture, there is no television screen- and also times when they will United Arab Emirates, Hong some countries. It is time yet who achieved a place ing of games. be disappointed as well.” Kong or the new rising power someone, sitting around the in this year’s ICC World It brings me to a point This is fair enough and Afghanistan, along with table pointed fingers at the T20 event in the made by a couple of coaches explains where he is coming teams that would dearly love domestic product and asked Caribbean, ahead of and a club secretary recently from in the way he and the to take part in such an event. what they are they doing other countries that have about members of the other selectors view the Asia Which is why, asking a ques- about it, without asking the a long-term culture in Ashantha de Mel panel. Cup, a tournament, which tion of the Asian Cricket thinking senior players. cricket. Their complaint was how two has already drawn criticism Council of the Asia Cup now It is call “trends” but only No doubt, the ACC of the selectors would regu- over it being held now being played in Dambulla, Sri because someone such as the will come up with a num- larly call them an hour or so because of television con- Lanka is to explain its rele- narcissistic Lalit Modi saw a ber of reasons why there before meetings to select tract. vance? chance to make a quick mil- is no qualifying tourna-