Politics in cricket

Cricket, once a gentlemen sport, is now divided amongst two groups. On one side are the financially powerful cricket boards (Australia, England & India) and on the other hand we have the less powerful cricket boards. The monopoly enjoyed by the alleged ‘Big 3’ is surely politicising cricket. This also leads to double standards in cricket. The pandemic further made the double standards in cricketing world obvious.

Talking about the pandemic, in 2020 Covid-19 started to spread like wildfire which adversely effected cricket (along with other sports) as everything came to a sudden halt. All the planned series were either postponed or cancelled; even the T20 World Cup got postponed. Everything came to a standstill: but then in those odd times, West Indies and Pakistan Cricket teams decided to tour England. This was not to be considered as normal series like pre-pandemic times as a huge health risk was involved. Other than that, the players were meant to go through a period of isolation in a bio-secure bubble which obviously took a toll on the mental health of many cricketers. This being said, the series were held successfully in empty stadiums and England emerged victorious against both touring teams. Pakistan again toured England a year later for a limited over series. However, when it was England’s turn to return back the favour to play only two T20s before the T20 World Cup, the English Cricket Board backed out without any valid reason; literally showed a ‘middle finger’ to Pakistan Cricket Board and turned a blind eye on all the promises they made of helping Pakistan. It Is important to mention that before England opting out from the Pakistan tour, it was New Zealand who called off the series with Pakistan just when the match was about to start. The Kiwis apparently received security threats from some sore loser hiding behind a fake id who certainly had the power similar to that of Captain America as the security team of New Zealand though his shield was more powerful when compared with the presidential security provided to their cricket team. Pun intended. Talking about the England Cricket Team, they certainly reminded Pakistan of the colonial era where they did whatever they intended to do without thinking about the consequences.

This doesn’t just end here. The postponement of T20 World Cup 2020 was mutually decided by ICC and Cricket Australia keeping in mind the corona crisis. However, the pandemic was ignored and IPL took place in UAE in November’20. Was IPL given a priority over T20 World Cup? Did BCCI pressurize ICC to postpone the T20 World Cup just to cater IPL or it was a decision solely made by ICC? These are the relevant questions here which may always remain a mystery.

Two months after IPL, Indian Cricket Team toured Australia and the crowds were allowed in small numbers (provided that they adhered to the SOPs). Looking at the scenario at hand, it could be said that the World Cup could have taken place in either Australia or UAE. IPL was prioritised here whereas international cricket sidelined. Also, many decisions were made in the near past to give a competitive edge to the strong cricketing boards. A major decision was that of when the ‘Big 3’ cricket
nations were announced in 2013. This was an unsuccessful attempt by BCCI and ICC discarded it in 2017.

Cricket is rather a game of money now. T20 leagues being the main reason through which Cricket got infiltrated. Australia cancelled their series with Bangladesh and South Africa but their players went to India for IPL during the worst days of the pandemic when thousands of people were dying on streets in India daily. The Australian ‘blokes’ were certainly corona resistant as they decided to visit the country for IPL under such dire circumstances.

Politics should not be a part of this beautiful game and ICC should treat every team equally. BCCI have ruined the game for many by politicising everything; one can draw a comparison with the alleged democratic government of India. As Imran Khan once said, “small men in big offices lack vision.”