Time to discuss security for 2011 World Cup

Hope the Sri Lankan and Pakistani cricket boards learn a lesson after today’s events in Lahore. The attack on the bus in which the Sri Lankan team was travelling should be an eye opener to all cricket boards in the sub-continent including the BCCI. The past few months have been very discouraging for cricket in the subcontinent with terrorism acting as a spoil sport. England was forced to cut short their tour after the 26/11 attacks on Bombay and although they did come back to play the tests, I still believe it was a dumb decison and something really bad could definitely have happened. The civil war in Lanka and the mutiny in Bangladesh haven’t been helping to the cause either with the 2011 World Cup not far away. 

India did the right decison by pulling out of the Pakistan tour, but unfortunately it is Jayawardena and co who have found themselves victims to the terrorists’ cowardly acts instead. In my opinion the current tour should have been put on hold the moment Pakistan made a deal with the Taliban. It may be easy for the boards and former players  say, ‘The show must go on’,  but unfortunately it is the players’ life which is put at grave risk. Who would have answered if any one of the cricketer had lost his life or even if one had his career cut short due to injuries. Fortunately though nothing of that sort happened. 

The ICC should take serious action against both the PCB and the SLC for going ahead with the tour despite the situation not being ripe. It is also time to sit and sicuss security for the upcoming World Cup. The situation isn’t getting any better in anywhere in the subcontinent including in India. The ICC should reconsider holding matches in Pakstan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, even in India if anything untoward happens in the coming months. They shouldn’t subject themselves to dictacts issued by the BCCI and rather should act towards the saftey of the numerous players. Any hesitation to take matches away from the subcontinent could turn really fatal. 

Cricket along with other sports in Pakistan is bound to suffer, especially with the growing presence of the Taliban which had banned sports and other leisure activities labelling them ‘unislamic’ while in power in Afghanistan. The PCB by now must have hopefully realised why Australia and other nations have been hesitant towards playing there.

Patil resigns, Chidambaram new Home Minister

 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has come up with a master move. With the Mumbai terror saga still refusing to die down, first he got Home Minister Shivraj Patil to resign, replacing him with Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and finally taking himself the additional responsibility of finance. Indeed, the PM has got two birds with one stone. Patil as minister had been committing blunder after blunder, and is pretty infamous for his cliched remarks after every terror strike – “We are looking into it.” In fact speaking of the Mumbai attacks he had said that for a large and famed city like Mumbai, the recent attack is just a ’small’ thing. 

Also,with recession looming large over the nation, the PM’s decision to make himself handle finance is also a welcome move. Chidambaram had been under performing and  could have done a lot better considering his credentials. There is no doubt that the Mr. Singh is the best economist in the country and is no stranger to his new post, having served as FM under PV Narasimha Rao. Manmohan is  the best person in the country who could probably save the country from a financial crisis. 

The changes are also good for the Congress with general elections just around the corner. The PM and his colleagues better pull up their socks if they want to see a repeat of 2004.

ECB should cancel the test series

I know this is just a small issue when compared to the terrorist situation in Mumbai. But I felt something should be said about it. The ECB and the BCCI did the right thing by cancelling th remaining two ODIs of the current one day series between the two sides. But I really don’t see the justice behind the ECB’s decision to carry on with the test series next month.  It is the same ECB that along with a few other ‘white’ boards refused to play in the Champions trophy in Pakistan a couple of months back. Isn’t it the same situation here in India too?

The point is BCCI is reimposing its role as the Big Daddy of the cricket world, even bigger than the ICC. It is only under pressure from BCCI has the ECB decided to play. I would be surprised if the players agree to play the tests, after all they were the ones who were scared to play in Pakstan. Although the 2nd test earlier scheduled to be played at the Brabourne in Mumbai has been moved to Chennai, the ground reality in India is still the same. When a group of 20 terrorists could bring a city as grand as Mumbai to its knees, what’s the guarantee that Chennai which so far hasn’t seen any terror issues, can cope up?

Then again, what is the need to move the test to Chennai and not any other city? The city has been plagued by heavy rains for the past week. MA Chidambaram is one stadium that has seen more rain interruptions than any other stadium in the country. Kolkata should ahve been the ideal venue for the test. But as we all know, Jaggi Dalmiya is back at the top of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) and the BCCI certainly is not impressed with this. Sharad Pawar had earlier moved the BCCI headquarters from the Eden Gardens to the Brabourne in Mumbai after replacing Dalmiya as the BCCI head. 

If the ECB has any conscience of its own, they should refuse to take part in the test series. The bottom line of all this is that Indian cricket, Money and Politics are blood brothers.