The International Cricket Council’s (ICC) global events are farcical, which in itself is mind-blowing because the ICC long ago gave up running the sport, instead becoming just a glorified events company — and they can’t even do that properly. The men’s T20 World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by India and Sri Lanka from next week, won’t include Bangladesh — one of the 12 full members of the ICC. The internal politics of the southeast Asian region are hard enough to fathom at the best of times, but these days it’s extremely complicated.
The collapse of diplomatic relations between Bangladesh and India has its roots in religious fundamentalism, with Bangladesh’s absence from the tournament the result of the cancellation of Mustafizur Rahman’s IPL contract by Kolkata Knight Riders. The franchise, part-owned by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, was instructed by the BCCI, apparently at the direction of the Indian government, to banish Mustafizur, one of the world’s best limited-overs bowlers. That decision led to Bangladesh requesting that their matches at the World Cup be moved to Sri Lanka.
However, the ICC found that Bangladesh’s concerns about the security of their players, management, media and supporters was unwarranted. Bangladesh dug in their heels and were banned from the tournament withScotland called up to replace them. It’s a mess and compromises the credibility of yet another ICC event.
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Tensions between Pakistan and India have seen the ICC agree that both countries would not face each other in matches at ICC tournaments hosted in those countries. Last year there wasridiculous schedulingfor the Champions Trophy that allowed India to play all their matches in Dubai, while opponents flew in and out from Pakistan — ostensibly the tournament hosts. Asia Cup tournaments that have been hosted by either Pakistan or India are now shared with Sri Lanka.
TheWomen’s World Cup last yearsaw five matches involving Pakistan affected by rain during the monsoon season in Colombo. Any thought that the ICC could even show an iota of what could be deemed leadership long ago washed away withJay Shah— a former chief secretary of the BCCI and son of Amit Shah, India’s internal minister, who is a close ally of Narendra Modi — taking over as chair of the ICC. It was Jay Shah who oversaw the Champions Trophy fiasco, which memorably involved South Africa’s squad flying to Dubai from Lahore, just in case they ended up having to face India in their semifinal.
When the results ensured that match didn’t happen, the Proteas had to quickly fly back to Pakistan. Even the World Test Championship is affected, with India and Pakistan unable to play each other unless both reach the final. India is central to all this.
They are the sport’s dominant economic force. There is no other sport where one country has such an overwhelming hold of so many elements — mainly because of its wealth.
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