When Mohammad Asif was caught at the Dubai International airport for possession of a banned substance, there were all sorts of reports. There was a report which claimed that Asif had pleaded innocence saying that the substance was given to him by a Hakim in Delhi while he was playing for the Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League. Majority of the reports claimed that he was in possession of hashish while a popular English news channel in India claimed that a white, powdered substance was found on him. The final verdict was opium. Later, the identity of the substance found on Asif stopped bothering people as it was revealed that the controversial pacer had tested positive for Nandrolone, a banned performance enhancing drug and a commonly used one at that during the IPL.
Asif and fellow Pakistani speedster Shaoib Akhtar had tested positive for Nandrolone once before and they were sent home from India. That was before the 2006 Champions Trophy. Asif got away cheaply as it was said that he had no knowledge of performance enhancing drugs. It seems that he does not believe in learning too.
Even if he didn’t know a thing about Nandrolone or performance enhancing drugs as such, he should have had a fair idea about the substance that was given to him by the Hakim, which no one is talking about anymore.
Well, Wasim Akram is talking. More interesting than the Asif saga is the former Pakistan captain’s take on it. Akram slammed Asif saying that the pacer had repeatedly brought shame to Pakistani cricket. The same Wasim Akram, who was caught smoking marijuana along with Aqib Javed, Waqar Younis and Mushtaq Ahmed on a Grenada beach during Pakistan’s tour of the West Indies in 1992-93. The same Wasim Akram, whose decision to drop himself for the 1996 World Cup quarterfinal match against India in Bangalore (now Bengaluru) gave rise to a huge controversy in Pakistan. The same Wasim Akram, who in spite of his 502 scalps in one-day cricket (highest in ODIs), finds little or no favour in his country and spends most of his time in India. Not to talk about the ball-tampering or match-fixing allegations.
Cannabis and cricket have a long history though. From Ian Botham to Herschelle Gibbs, there have been quite a few instances of smoking pot. A number of Kiwi cricketers, including their captain Stephen Fleming were banned and fined for smoking marijuana in 1993. From time to time, there have been allegations of using recreational and other drugs against cricketers. The grey area is the punishment to be meted out in such a case by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) or any governing body of sports as these drugs do not squarely fall under the category of performance enhancing drugs. The million dollar question is, whether these drugs help a cricketer or not. While cricketers indulging into such activities could be viewed as another case of deviation, there are opinions that these substances could help a sportsman albeit for a limited period.
It is high time that the governing bodies in cricket and other sports engaged themselves in finding the answer to this solution. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) could lead the way. Maybe Wasim Akram would forget some of his bitter memories concerning the PCB and provide them with an interesting insight!
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
The absurd IPL-EPL comparison
A domestic T20 competition on the lines of the English Premier League sure sounded good. The commercial success that the Indian Premier League (IPL) was and the response it got from all over the country were also amazing. But the comparison was far-fetched. For not only the rivalry in the EPL was never a result of a commercial venture, players giving EPL preference over international fixtures is also unheard of. That is exactly what the IPL has succeeded in achieving.
Players are understandably more willing to feature in the league and all such similar efforts rather than playing for their country. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) recently got to hear the music from its players when they decided to tour England in 2009 after Zimbabwe’s tour of England ran into troubled waters. But what Arjuna Ranatunga, the SLC chief failed to remember when he gave his word to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) was that the dates of the tour would clash with those of IPL chapter two. 13 Sri Lankan cricketers are on IPL contracts and thus, the timing of the proposed tour or the former Sri Lankan captain’s commitment was certain to come across as a bolt from the blue to the Sri Lankan players. Sri Lankan officials, who had a tough time sorting out their own contract issues with the players, had no option but to give in to the demands of the players. As of now, as things stand, SLC has verbally told its IPL players that they can choose IPL over the tour of England. Further discussions with the English officials as regards postponement of the tour is on the cards but is unlikely to yield any results. What it effectively means is that the possibility of Sri Lanka engaging themselves in an absorbing Test series in overseas conditions without their captain Mahela Jayawardene, vice-captain Kumara Sangakkara, pace spearhead Chaminda Vaas, spin wizards Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis is very high.
Indian Premier League has successfully created a conflict of interests amongst players from Sri Lanka, New Zealand and even Australia. Adam Gilchrist’s announcement of retirement from international cricket was viewed with suspicion by a section of the pundits for the same reason. With India controlling the finances in world cricket these days, this scenario probably makes sense. But other cricket boards are alarmed by the situation and with help from the likes of Allen Stanford (the Texan billionaire has taken it upon himself to revive West Indian cricket by pumping in the big bucks and is also expected to send a team to England’s domestic T20 competition) they might just succeed in putting BCCI under pressure.
Imagine a situation where Cristiano Ronaldo refuses to play for Portugal as playing for Manchester United would do a world of good to his bank account! Rest assured, the Portuguese football association, with support from other European football associations would force Man U to drop the player to teach him a lesson. But in cricket, this is a distant dream. There’s no scope of unity amongst the various cricket boards apart from areas where vested interests are involved. Moreover, if cricketers from other countries develop some kind of a loyalty towards BCCI, simply for the reason that the Indian board is apparently more concerned about their financial security than their own board, then even chaos wouldn’t be the word to describe such a state of affairs!
Players are understandably more willing to feature in the league and all such similar efforts rather than playing for their country. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) recently got to hear the music from its players when they decided to tour England in 2009 after Zimbabwe’s tour of England ran into troubled waters. But what Arjuna Ranatunga, the SLC chief failed to remember when he gave his word to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) was that the dates of the tour would clash with those of IPL chapter two. 13 Sri Lankan cricketers are on IPL contracts and thus, the timing of the proposed tour or the former Sri Lankan captain’s commitment was certain to come across as a bolt from the blue to the Sri Lankan players. Sri Lankan officials, who had a tough time sorting out their own contract issues with the players, had no option but to give in to the demands of the players. As of now, as things stand, SLC has verbally told its IPL players that they can choose IPL over the tour of England. Further discussions with the English officials as regards postponement of the tour is on the cards but is unlikely to yield any results. What it effectively means is that the possibility of Sri Lanka engaging themselves in an absorbing Test series in overseas conditions without their captain Mahela Jayawardene, vice-captain Kumara Sangakkara, pace spearhead Chaminda Vaas, spin wizards Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis is very high.
Indian Premier League has successfully created a conflict of interests amongst players from Sri Lanka, New Zealand and even Australia. Adam Gilchrist’s announcement of retirement from international cricket was viewed with suspicion by a section of the pundits for the same reason. With India controlling the finances in world cricket these days, this scenario probably makes sense. But other cricket boards are alarmed by the situation and with help from the likes of Allen Stanford (the Texan billionaire has taken it upon himself to revive West Indian cricket by pumping in the big bucks and is also expected to send a team to England’s domestic T20 competition) they might just succeed in putting BCCI under pressure.
Imagine a situation where Cristiano Ronaldo refuses to play for Portugal as playing for Manchester United would do a world of good to his bank account! Rest assured, the Portuguese football association, with support from other European football associations would force Man U to drop the player to teach him a lesson. But in cricket, this is a distant dream. There’s no scope of unity amongst the various cricket boards apart from areas where vested interests are involved. Moreover, if cricketers from other countries develop some kind of a loyalty towards BCCI, simply for the reason that the Indian board is apparently more concerned about their financial security than their own board, then even chaos wouldn’t be the word to describe such a state of affairs!
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Justification is a just demand
Why such a name of the blog when it talks of cricket in a completely different manner? Well, the name doesn’t suggest an agenda and thus, expectations of unabashed cricket-bashing alone are certain to meet with disappointment. At the same time, the name does underline the author’s viewpoint about the sport and as the author decided that his ‘pearls of wisdom’ should be shared with others i.e he decided to publish these posts on a public forum, this justification or clarification was deemed by him as necessary.
On a lighter note, the blog was created on the author’s behalf by a blogger friend and being the lazy person that the author is, it took him three months to finally post something on it and it so happened that the first or the second post wasn’t really ‘in sync’ with the name! Apologies for the same.
Why such a viewpoint then? First, let me make it very clear that I have nothing against cricket. Like every other Indian, I spent most of my time playing cricket in the neighborhood and in school and even nurtured a dream to play for India for a while. Later I realized that cricket was not really regarded as a sport in India but much more than that. Every second-grade neighborhood all-rounder like me was imitating the mannerisms of Kris Srikkanth or the bowling action of Abdul Qadir with the secret hope that one day the neighborhood ground would be replaced with something bigger and more meaningful. In short, cricket was synonymous with ambitions.
We used to watch football, tennis and even the Olympics. In fact, we used to watch the super-heavyweight title bouts too as and when they happened. As I grew up, I didn’t even realize when the watching habits had changed. Nobody was bothered about watching the athletes showcasing their talent at the greatest show on earth anymore or nobody was perturbed by the country’s glorious past in hockey being degraded on the astro turf and even the naturally gifted footballers in the neighborhood had stopped harbouring dreams of playing for Mohunbagan or East Bengal. They had instead taken to watching NBA and Formula One. When a team comprising of school kids chose NHL (ice hockey) as their favoured topic in an open quiz, it was an eye-opener for me.
Aspirations of making it to the Indian cricket team though were and are still there.
The reasons for such cricket fanaticism are well known and the foremost reason of course is that India failed miserably in all other sports barring cricket in the last 3 decades. But it wasn’t the same always. Agreed, India never produced world class athletes apart from a couple of exceptions in the forms of a Milkha Singh or a PT Usha, who failed to live up to the expectations when the occasions demanded so. But no one needs to be reminded of the Indians’ trickery with the hockey stick and even with the football. Till the 70s, sports were taken seriously and people had a wide array of them to choose from and thus, chose the sport of their choice. Even though results were not immediate and forthcoming, there was no dearth of sincere efforts being put in.
Things started changing from the 80s. Going through the rigours of a daily schedule of a sportsman was not the order of the day anymore, as cricket, pardon me for saying this, didn’t even require its players to do so.
Cricket unlike other sports has always depended on God’s gift (read talent). Thus, pot-bellied icons are commonplace in cricket (Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne, Inzamam-Ul-Haq, Arjuna Ranatunga, David Boon). And the fact that fitness is never really the top priority, at least in Indian cricket, becomes evident when 22-year-old Rudra Pratap Singh tries to bend down and pick up a ball from the boundary line.
That doesn’t mean that talent does not matter in other sports. But, those sports make sure that their players don’t lag behind as far as other important aspects like fitness or agility are concerned. In cricket though, the rules are different. Thus, one of the icons of modern cricket, Anil Kumble continues to be clueless when it comes to diving or sliding on the field even after spending more than a decade and a half in the international arena!
This I guess suits the Indians. Less work out, less rigour, fables of Gundappa Vishwanath drinking away to glory at night while a Test match was on and more rewards which talent alone could secure. It doesn’t matter if only a handful of countries are aware of the rules of the game and one of them is Bangladesh, the other one is Zimbabwe, the third one is Pakistan and the fourth one is Sri Lanka. Apart from Australia, New Zealand, England and to some extent South Africa, cricket-playing nations are miserable when it comes to other sports.
It doesn’t matter because in a country of 1 billion, making ends meet is a serious issue and cricket guarantees that if one could instinctively produce a copybook cover drive without sweating it out in the gym.
Fair enough, but this attitude does not speak highly of a nation. Sports and all of them are considered career options in most of the developed countries and they are treated like any other vocation. Just like the way one has to prepare himself for obtaining an academic degree, one has to prepare himself for an Olympic medal too, instead of depending on a ‘magic delivery’ or unbelievable ‘peripheral awareness’.
India controls the finances in cricket today and more and more cricketers would join the bandwagon. But that should not for a moment compel us to think of ourselves as a sporting nation as cricket is no sport for any or all of the abovementioned reasons. Cricket shares nothing in common with any other sport and while supporters of the game could put forward the same logic to prove what a great sport this one is, they also must wonder why it is so!
On a lighter note, the blog was created on the author’s behalf by a blogger friend and being the lazy person that the author is, it took him three months to finally post something on it and it so happened that the first or the second post wasn’t really ‘in sync’ with the name! Apologies for the same.
Why such a viewpoint then? First, let me make it very clear that I have nothing against cricket. Like every other Indian, I spent most of my time playing cricket in the neighborhood and in school and even nurtured a dream to play for India for a while. Later I realized that cricket was not really regarded as a sport in India but much more than that. Every second-grade neighborhood all-rounder like me was imitating the mannerisms of Kris Srikkanth or the bowling action of Abdul Qadir with the secret hope that one day the neighborhood ground would be replaced with something bigger and more meaningful. In short, cricket was synonymous with ambitions.
We used to watch football, tennis and even the Olympics. In fact, we used to watch the super-heavyweight title bouts too as and when they happened. As I grew up, I didn’t even realize when the watching habits had changed. Nobody was bothered about watching the athletes showcasing their talent at the greatest show on earth anymore or nobody was perturbed by the country’s glorious past in hockey being degraded on the astro turf and even the naturally gifted footballers in the neighborhood had stopped harbouring dreams of playing for Mohunbagan or East Bengal. They had instead taken to watching NBA and Formula One. When a team comprising of school kids chose NHL (ice hockey) as their favoured topic in an open quiz, it was an eye-opener for me.
Aspirations of making it to the Indian cricket team though were and are still there.
The reasons for such cricket fanaticism are well known and the foremost reason of course is that India failed miserably in all other sports barring cricket in the last 3 decades. But it wasn’t the same always. Agreed, India never produced world class athletes apart from a couple of exceptions in the forms of a Milkha Singh or a PT Usha, who failed to live up to the expectations when the occasions demanded so. But no one needs to be reminded of the Indians’ trickery with the hockey stick and even with the football. Till the 70s, sports were taken seriously and people had a wide array of them to choose from and thus, chose the sport of their choice. Even though results were not immediate and forthcoming, there was no dearth of sincere efforts being put in.
Things started changing from the 80s. Going through the rigours of a daily schedule of a sportsman was not the order of the day anymore, as cricket, pardon me for saying this, didn’t even require its players to do so.
Cricket unlike other sports has always depended on God’s gift (read talent). Thus, pot-bellied icons are commonplace in cricket (Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne, Inzamam-Ul-Haq, Arjuna Ranatunga, David Boon). And the fact that fitness is never really the top priority, at least in Indian cricket, becomes evident when 22-year-old Rudra Pratap Singh tries to bend down and pick up a ball from the boundary line.
That doesn’t mean that talent does not matter in other sports. But, those sports make sure that their players don’t lag behind as far as other important aspects like fitness or agility are concerned. In cricket though, the rules are different. Thus, one of the icons of modern cricket, Anil Kumble continues to be clueless when it comes to diving or sliding on the field even after spending more than a decade and a half in the international arena!
This I guess suits the Indians. Less work out, less rigour, fables of Gundappa Vishwanath drinking away to glory at night while a Test match was on and more rewards which talent alone could secure. It doesn’t matter if only a handful of countries are aware of the rules of the game and one of them is Bangladesh, the other one is Zimbabwe, the third one is Pakistan and the fourth one is Sri Lanka. Apart from Australia, New Zealand, England and to some extent South Africa, cricket-playing nations are miserable when it comes to other sports.
It doesn’t matter because in a country of 1 billion, making ends meet is a serious issue and cricket guarantees that if one could instinctively produce a copybook cover drive without sweating it out in the gym.
Fair enough, but this attitude does not speak highly of a nation. Sports and all of them are considered career options in most of the developed countries and they are treated like any other vocation. Just like the way one has to prepare himself for obtaining an academic degree, one has to prepare himself for an Olympic medal too, instead of depending on a ‘magic delivery’ or unbelievable ‘peripheral awareness’.
India controls the finances in cricket today and more and more cricketers would join the bandwagon. But that should not for a moment compel us to think of ourselves as a sporting nation as cricket is no sport for any or all of the abovementioned reasons. Cricket shares nothing in common with any other sport and while supporters of the game could put forward the same logic to prove what a great sport this one is, they also must wonder why it is so!
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