We have lost a great embassador of the game Cricket of recent era.
I would like to excerpt a few parts of the lectures he has delivered from The2012MCC Spiritof CricketCowdrey Lecture:
"Yehudi Menuhin once said of one of Beethoven's greatest works, The Pastoral, that Beethoven wrote it, but God approved it. Whether it's a game of cricket on an English green, an Indian maidan, a Caribbean beach, an Australian park, or right here at Lord's with the ancient pavilions looking on, I believe that is so true of cricket. We humans created cricket, but God approved it"
"Currently, there are 10 full members of the ICC and the constitution requires the approval of 70%, or seven members, to advance any motion, which means 40%, or four members, can block any motion. Much of the game is controlled by the BCCI because it controls enough votes to block any proposal put forward at the ICC board meetings. The reason for this is some countries would not survive without the financial opportunities India provides. What is just as disturbing is through the Champions League, South Africa and Australia have a partnership with India and are unlikely to risk offending India. The current Champions League 10-year contract generates just under a billion dollars and is 50% owned by India with Australia and South African sharing the rest".
"India's apparent indifference towards Test cricket and its response towards some of the key issues - the international calendar and the mix of the different types of cr icket; its attitude to the earlier ICC corruption inquiries; its indifference to the urgency to introduce anti-doping rules; the rumoured corruption hanging over the IPL; its attitude to the Decision Review System; and its role in the lack of due process in stopping former Australian Prime Minister John Howard being appointed vice president of the ICC - are all examples of disappointing decisions. But many of the problems with the ICC could be resolved if India invoked the spirit of cricket and didn't try and influence its allies in how to vote."
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In my view, every international team should be required to play at least three Tests, three ODIs and three Twenty/20 matches against all the other teams in a given home and away cycle. The Future Tours Programme is managed by the ICC and it provides guidelines to its members. The ICC tries to impose 'minimums'. However, the various 'big guns' didn't like the idea of being tied to these 'minimums' so they agreed to the minimums but introduced an "unless otherwise agreed clause", which in effect allows all full members to do as they please"
He got the heart to speak out what he realized was a major hindrance regarding uplifting the true spirit of Cricket due to the act of personal benefits of some of the Big Boys in Cricket world. Thank you for uttering the truth, Tony. We will be missing you.
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