Potentially the biggest cricket news of the year is unravelling. No it’s not Rohit Sharma’s incredible 264 in an ODI at Eden Gardens. No it’s not the West Indies pulling out mid-tour. No it isn’t batsmen scoring huge runs in Sheidl cricket for season after season and frequently being ignored by selectors. Not it’s not KP. No it’s not Mitchell Johnson’s moustache, let alone Rangana Herath’s. No it’s not the lockdown on chuckers which have essentially ended the career of the then current number 1 spinner in the world Saeed Ajmal. No it’s not a commentator believing a 6 hit his car, when it in fact didn’t hit his car, and even if it had, he was using a rental car. And no, it wasn’t England losing to the Dutch in the World T20.
The biggest story of the year is coming from the Indian Supreme Court. And the ramifications are potentially enormous. Put simply, the BCCI President Srinivasan is under investigation for corruption. He’s also President of the ICC, (conflict of interest?) and Director of Indian Cements, which owns CSK in the IPL. This is the main part of the investigation as CSK played Rajasthan in a game that was allegedly fixed.
One would assume that if under investigation for such charges, Srini would be forced to stand down, much like predecessor Haroon Lorgat. Coincidentally Lorgat was found innocent of any wrongdoing, and while there is a chance Srini may too have his name cleared, he should at least follow a precedent set and stand down even temporarily from his position at the BCCI & ICC. At least whilst the investigation is still ongoing.
One would also assume that cricket media in Australia, England and India would mention this potentially damaging news. That the man who runs world cricket has possibly been involved with match fixing. Nope, none of the major papers have written anything about it. Nor can any names mentioned be found on Cricinfo, let alone in any main headlines. Yes, the case is ongoing, and once all the findings are released from the Mudgal report, then one would expect to read all about it. But right as the news was breaking on twitter……that was pretty much the only place you would’ve found any details!
What’s effectively happened is the major cricket media have remained silent. And that silence is deafening. When Cricket Australia announces their social media network is meant to be independent, and yet says nothing about the biggest ongoing story in cricket, we know exactly where CA’s bread is buttered. Same goes for each and every other cricket board, and their social media accounts making zero comment on the situation that could effect them significantly.
They’ve all strangely followed the Sachin way of dealing with controversy, ‘Give them nothing’. Tendulkar has just released his auto-biography which is essentially a 400 page collection of match reports, going into almost no detail of the stories that actual cricket fans want to read. The Sachin nut-huggers will no doubt buy the book, and still love the Little Master, despite his involvement in Monkey-gate, what his views are on fixing which his Indian side has been heavily involved with, what his thoughts on selectors are particularly those that stripped him of captaincy.
Generally speaking, the book is a reflection of how most cricket media works now, give the fans nothing, restrict what is released. If one wants to get a better grasp of the current game, the blogs are the place to look, Sachin and the officialdom won’t give the fans anything. The silence is deafening.
Gavin
Filed under: Cricket
