ICC Get The Politicians Play Book Out – Sound Tough Do Nothing

Posted on August 31, 2010 by twsi

The ICC has promised Prompt and Decisive action against corruption. It has said it has Zero Tolerance of corruption. Just what the public and media want to hear.

Here’s the wiggle room. The players bowling no balls may be considered a lesser crime. The ICC can also be fairly sure that there may be no criminal convictions as the UK authorities may not have a crime. Deliberately bowling a no ball! It’s not something you can bet on legally. The guy the police have taking money is of course in a he said she said if he accuses the players and they can dismiss him as a fantasist. It could quite easily result in no inquiry and no bans.

Here’s what they are not saying they will do. Root out corruption in the game.  They have zero tolerance. They will respond swiftly. Translates as they are not looking to get to the bottom of anything as that would require a long and considered response. They will ban one or two scapegoats and leave everyone under suspicion but able to carry on as before.

The correct approach is to say OK it’s happening and encourage people to explain how they became corrupted and who else is. That is not done swiftly.

The more draconian sanction on offer the more people will deny and be less likely to put anyone else in the dock. Even if you do ban someone for life or threaten to that taints them as a whistle blower only doing so to avoid a long ban. It gains nothing but arbitrary justice on the unlucky within that culture.

We should be lift the lid but that could mean finding out that Pakistan and other people’s cricket is corrupted from top to bottom and that is not something as spineless and grasping an organisation like the ICC will contemplate. They banned Cronje for life and let every one else off without a real investigation outside South Africa.

The ICC also have form for conniving results from inquiries. They had Harbhajan Singh bang to rights a couple of years ago. 4 spontaneous and consistent accounts of a racist slur. Singh offered no defense bar denial. 4 weeks later he comes up with a new story that he said something that sounded like a racial slur but in a 3rd language. A New Zealand House Judge threw out the case. The point being it’s hard to imagine any court not convicting in such a case but the ICC wanted beyond reasonable doubt proof. That is going to be impossible and indeed they do not need such indisputable proof or anywhere near it as a civilian body.

I want an end to corruption the ICC want to PR their way through this with slogans. The tougher people sound in this world the weaker they really are it seems.

So I am calling for slow and indecisive action and maximum tolerance. That is the tough stance.

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Pakistan Cricket Kill The Disease Not The Body

Posted on August 30, 2010 by twsi

Cricket and the BBC through the vehicle of the World Cup helps fund Mugabe to the tune of millions. No doubt in Pakistan the players are kept poor whilst the siblings and spawn of the ruling elite strip the money.

So let’s not have a moral tirade against Pakistan cricketers offering up life bans for offenders. Cricket does not have the moral authority. I can only assume given he and the ECB knowingly invited  Pakistan to play home and away series in England that Giles Clarke was turning his old school tie nose up at Mo Amir yesterday because he was a pleb or maybe Amir asked for his prize in cash?

I won’t deal with history either as it’s long and it merely shows that tolerance by and of the PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) has led us to here. Indeed where corruption is concerned Australia, England and the West Indies have swept it under the carpet in the past so let’s move on. Save to say that with Shahid Afridi reporting this abuse and nothing being done we can safely assume the PCB is at best guilty by omission, according to Mike Selvey in the Guardian/Observer.

What to do?

Suspend Pakistan.

Suspend until they create a Cricket Board devoid of any of the players who refused to cooperate with their last inquiry. The sight of Waqar Younis on their balcony in this series hardly struck a note of probity. The new board needs rules excluding ex cricketers found guilty of corruption from holding posts with it – coaching or groundman even.

I would let off all players who make total disclosure (since their board is likely to be suspended for a while and it can dish out further punishment when reconstructed). This would include no more sweet heart deals that allowed Alec Stewart, Brian Charles Lara, Nicky Boje, Herschelle Gibbs to escape the Indian Police and continue to play cricket. Indeed there is no bar to any of these players in cricket amazingly – Gibbs did slink along 6 years later for an interview TBF. Suspend them till they tell the whole truth.

For world cricket the following.

New rules to make Cricket boards like  Football Associations free from all political influence. Such that a board is suspended if it is subject to political appointments or interference.

TV companies to stop fawning over cricketers who have disgraced the game. Shane Warne bookie’s nark and drug cheat (the Australian Mo Asif?) is allowed in any commentary box. So all these friends of Warney I hear shouting for life bans are at best hypocrites.

TV coverage to be like when Dwain Chambers runs, to point out the cheats. According to Sky Mo Asif (the Pakistani Shane Warne) was controversial! No mention of how controversial. A 2 time unpunished (by the PCB) drug cheat who was caught drug smuggling in Dubai (minimum sentence for a Westerner 4.5 years for a Poppy seed).

If they merely opt to ban rather than do anything the ICC/PCB should consider the ECB banned Giddins for 5 years for betting on opponents in an inconsequential match (that they employed Rod Marsh for many years makes them hypocrites BTW). Giddins got 19 months for taking Cocaine as well if you want to contrast the ECB with the PCB’s treatment of Mo Asif.

Anyone who claims to be shocked by these claims has clearly not watched a cricket match with Pakistan. Their ludicrous turning winning positions into losing positions as the odds shifted. Mike Hussey’s entire highlight reel for 2 years is in question at present!

Finally if the twenty20 and one day series goes ahead then such venal acts surely show that it’s not just the players who are greedy. No one can be surprised in a sport populated by people obsessed  with what’s in it for me that the players can be corrupted. That is why the sport needs root and branch change not pruning.

If I was a punter with tickets or who had watched this series I’d demand my money back.

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Defoe Highlights Pundits Xenophobia

Posted on August 25, 2010 by twsi

It irritates me that after 24 years that whenever anyone from England gets to interview or talk of Diego Maradona or even to talk about him all that ever comes up is the Hand of God. No doubt as Maradona turned around he probably expected a booking but the referee gave a goal. It’s something that happens.

Luis Fabiano in the World Cup attracted a fair amount of odium after a couple of great touches of his arms before scoring against the Ivory Coast.

Tonight Jermain Defoe controls the ball with his hand and then sweeps it into the net. He even has a quick sneak peak to see if he got away with it. Cue masses of complaints from pundits about cheating…. No. Apparently it was the extra official’s fault. Defoe rightly attracted no blame or complaint just smiles and jokes.

If you had to list the 50 most important parts of Maradona’s career the hand ball goal against England would not be on it. Frankly if you want to crab Maradona there are a host of things you can say but the Hand of God is not one of them.

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Liverpool Suffer Like Spain But With More Pain

Posted on August 24, 2010 by twsi

Last night Liverpool fans got some indication of what Spanish supporters got in the World Cup without the win at the end. Hodgson had managed to keep the grossly, and gross is the key word here, Torres off the field in a creditable performance against Arsenal but away at the City of Manchester stadium he was forced to play him, one assumes as seems annoying with England by profile. With Joe Cole celebrating earning his first half million off Liverpool and taking time off to celebrate that Liverpool played a 4132 some might say 442.

At present there is a nightmare scenario where the gross Torres plays up front moving only briefly to try to score himself with Joe Cole behind him donating the ball as he tries to play centrally for the first time in Donkey’s years. Whilst a member of the Twitterati assured me Torres would get better and had not declined you cannot help wondering about big framed lads at 26. What is clear is we may have an Owen scenario here where a player is injured and takes time getting back – killing the team and forcing the manager to defend him to the point of looking helpless. This may not have mattered as much 12 years ago but now even the Champions League places are contested from August to May. Players who are either great or a liability are better suited to relegation candidates or continental sides where there is less pressure on aging knees in games and with less games – van Persie aussi?

Torres has now had 8 games I have seen and whilst he injured something else at the World Cup he got no fitter from playing , quite the opposite. My point is that his rep might get a large fee. Buyers would value Torres fully back and fit – graft, delusion and upside are currency in football. If they wait and he becomes a big striker who does not move nor compete in the air then he will be a liability almost no matter how many goals the team can lay on a plate for such a player.

Even if Torres does come back fully sharp and soon one wonders if Hodgson can continue to play light in midfield to keep Joe Cole. Can Joe Cole play a part and is that part big enough to justify the sacrifice of Gerrard in central midfield where his play veers from god like passing, shooting and tackling to reckless tackles (excused by domestic refs), poor positioning and being caught up field plus his questionable stamina has been exposed the last time he played there – there is a reason England managers and Liverpool managers are circumspect about having him in the heart of midfield.

In reality Liverpool are a holding position for a new owner. Selling Torres does not matter to the owners and if he starts playing he may be worth more to them than to a football club trying to break even and not up for sale.

Footnote: Javiar Mascherano proved that he was not just vile on the pitch but off it by refusing to play – so much for his love Liverpool not settled in England narrative. Frankly what he and Tevez brought in being the paid puppets of a spiv is not their only contribution to the levels of Cuntery in the Premiership. Mascherano is a cheat, a referee baiter, a toad and a Cunt.

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I Agree With S’Alex, No Really

Posted on August 18, 2010 by twsi

Sir Alex Ferguson, a great man in most respects, today is quoted blasting suicidal transfer spending. I agree, although in the context of defending owners who remove £100s Mn every year it is perhaps misdirection by the red faced one. Nonetheless yesterday we have the obscenity of a 90K a week player playing for a bankrupt Cardiff. Time for a change.

My change is simple like baseball’s 40 man roster if you are not on it and out of options you are released. The options system is to ensure that players on the roster who were developed by the youth system, minor leagues, stay with the team that developed them or traded for them (Baseball fans I do not need a more complete and accurate account of waiver clearances, the 6 year rule or Designation for Assignment for the purposes of this discussion). Thus Bellamy as he will not make the Man City 25 should be released from his contract, with City paying the remainder – in reality an experienced player would be designated for assignment and a new club would only have to pick up the minimum wage part of his pay as I understand it. Of course Bellamy could choose to still pay for Cardiff but there would be no factor of City paying him not to play for a rival as at present – you cannot stop people playing for who they like.

Ideally I’d get rid of transfers altogether as all they seem to do is create corruption particularly among those who run clubs. Clubs have become bodies filled with parasites who eat the animal from the inside out. Full of spivs enriching themselves whilst the club withers. Fans do not care as of course once the animal becomes a carcass a process involving paltry 9 and  10 point penalties happens and it’s rebuilt and fans amazingly get sympathy for their club’s plight – no I don’t get it either.

It may fill 2nd rate sports news channels [Sky] but transfers scar the game by: engendering corruption: making valuable players almost impossible to discipline: creating the absurdity whereby Mutu owes Chelsea for money he never had: tying players to clubs and locations they do not want to be in: etc.

Indeed this could happen anyway. A player left off the club’s 25 is effectively being Constructively Dismissed and if PFA want to earn their money for once they should press that case and they will at present have 10+ cases from Man City alone.

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