Olympic Council slams money-obsessed India for 'killing' cricket

[DESERT FIGHTER]

“The people in charge want money. This is not a sport, this is business.” -Photo by Reuters
INCHEON: The head of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has launched a scathing attack on India over its refusal to enter a cricket team at the Asian Games, saying its decision was “killing” the sport.

Twenty20 Cricket was added to the Asian Games programme four years ago as a way to try and promote the sport in the region.

But India, the world's richest and most influential cricketing nation, has steadfastly refused to send a men's or women's team to either the 2010 or the 2014 Asian Games.

The Indian cricket board (BCCI) said its players were too busy with their other commitments. The Asian Games, which ended in South Korea on Saturday, clashed with the lucrative Champions League Twenty20 taking place in India.

But the OCA president, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, said India's stance was short-sighted and damaging the game.

“They are killing cricket, limiting the NOCs (National Olympic Committees) participating in cricket and killing the market,” Sheikh Ahmad told a news conference at the Asian Games on Saturday.

“Sorry to say this as a sports fan, but this is the reality. This is why cricket is only a Commonwealth sport.”

India has also opposed the inclusion of cricket at other multi-sports events, including the Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games, a stance that has put them at odds with other cricketing nations and players. Sri Lanka, the current Twenty20 world champions, sent a team to the Asian Games and won the men's gold medal, beating Afghanistan in the final.

Pakistan won the women's gold medal for the second time on a row, but followed India's lead and did not send a men's team because many of its best players are competing in the big-spending Champions League. Australia's players have been very vocal in arguing that cricket should be on the Olympic programme but the International Cricket Council (ICC) has been opposed to the idea.

Sheikh Ahmad, one of the most powerful men in the Olympic movement, said the OCA could not force India to compete at the Asian Games but he was disappointed by its stance.

“When we put a sport in a programme, we always wish to have the top athletes here,” he said.

“I'm sorry that the Indian delegate did not attend. We have to respect their own request.

“The people in charge want money. This is not a sport, this is business,” the OCA chief said.

“I hope in future they will understand to keep it as your baby in your chest -- it's not your personal toy, it's the people's game and you have to deliver it for the people.

“You can be rich by the game but you have to cover the other sector, and this is why cricket is still only a Commonwealth sport,” he added.

The increasing influence of India's mega-rich Twenty20 leagues has come under widespread criticism in recent years with former players and administrators complaining it has become too powerful and could be fuelling corruption in the game.

Just last month, former England all-rounder Ian Botham called for the Indian Premier League (IPL) to be scrapped because it was taking players away from representing their own countries.

Botham said he also feared that the IPL could unwittingly fuel corruption and gambling -- a scourge which has tarnished the sport's image in recent years.

The current chairman of the ICC is Narayanaswami Srinivasan, an Indian industrialist who is currently being investigated over a betting scam on IPL matches.

Earlier this year, Srinivasan was ordered by India's top court to stand down as president of the BCCI after his son-in-law was indicted for illegal betting on IPL.

“Corruption is enough of a problem in itself, but the IPL compounds that problem given it provides the perfect opportunity for betting and therefore fixing,” Botham said.

 

[sarthak]

Bashing IPL has become a habit for some.The entire gross amount spent on IPL auction in 2013 (cost of all the players in IPL) was Rs 468 crore. That's only slightly more than the amount Cristiano Ronaldo earns in a single year , which is around $75 million.

Besides,no sport can survive without money being involved. IPL is actually doing a favour to cricket. Each big sport in the world has a league which doles out a lot of cash to players. Before IPL , cricket had none. Money is needed to encourage and spawn new players and general interest in the sport. You think kids want to become sportsmen just because they love the sport? No, 90% of them do it to earn money and fame.

 

[Jungibaaz]

Cricket is being killed. It's a beautiful game being turned into batsman's game. And overwhelmingly BCCI and then the ICC are to blame. Thanks to them, you might not ever produce another player the likes of Rahul Dravid or Tendulkar, only meatnecks with no grace who only smash the ball 100 meters.

 

[Gautam]

Asian Games should slap permanent sanction on India for this khurrafat. All gold medals won by Bhartis should be confiscated immediately. BCCI is a threat to the game of cricket.

 

[janith pasindu]

Since the more power gained by so called big 3 , final drama of beautiful game of Cricket has just started

 

[Abingdonboy]

I don't get the IPL bashing, no one seems to have a problem with club football.

 

[Kaniska]

Cricket is being killed. It's a beautiful game being turned into batsman's game. And overwhelmingly BCCI and then the ICC are to blame. Thanks to them, you might not ever produce another player the likes of Rahul Dravid or Tendulkar, only meatnecks with no grace who only smash the ball 100 meters.

Agree..Quality has gone down...Now even i feeling more excited to watch ICL football than watching India West Indies cricket match...And also if i watch ....after watching West Indies player in IPL matches, i feel like West Indies is like my players..Even i feel sad when West Indies is defeated....So i stopped watching them loosing...

 

[Jungibaaz]

Agree..Quality has gone down...Now even i feeling more excited to watch ICL football than watching India West Indies cricket match...And also if i watch ....after watching West Indies player in IPL matches, i feel like West Indies is like my players..Even i feel sad when West Indies is defeated....So i stopped watching them loosing...

My favourite format of cricket is test. That's where all the elegance, skill and understated talent it.
Soon enough this beautiful sport will be just like the American sports, all about entertainment, entertainment for simpletons. (No offence to you yanks @Informant).

Small games, not much running around and playing, breaks every over, ads all over the place and in between balls. Big hitting and dead pitches.

I've recently come across this horde of people who now watch cricket whereas they didn't before, they were introduced to it by T20 and IPL, they seem to hate test and ODI formats for being too long, boring and not eventful enough.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

I think the game has already started a decline , before 50's and 100's were marked by celebrations and sense of accomplishment , and Cricket council has single highhandedly destroyed that feel from the game.

Those folks who never had chance to understand the grueling nature of 5 day format and fast yet tactically challenging 1 Day cricket will not understand what damage has already been done

Cricket used to be a sport about calculated risk , a balance between Offense & Solid Defense, strike too much and you go home with small total , play too slowly and you run out of chance to win , so it was always a balance

There was balance between Bowling & Batting lineups , the long format of game offered teams to customize and value players that could extend their defense capabilities and also throw in few offensive players

All Rounders reveled in the longer format because it was truly in longer formats did they get enough chance to play enough balls to show their class not only bowling but also getting enough balls to make tail ender's last stand - Gone are the Epic stands to delay the onset of second innings start by Middle and tail

A double century used to be of value of awe and admiration , it signified that the player stood for days to battle out every thing the other team could throw at him including kitchen sink

The new format is not cricket it has merely become a game of chance, dictated by the number of balls remaining forcing players to constantly HIT and HIT only , field positioning makes lesser difference

The biggest element that has disappeared is the need for players to come to crease and play 10-20 balls to settle in, it used to be at this phase we used to see a mind battle between the bowler and batsmen how will the mind game play out

Now the game has officially turned into , YOU WILL NEED TO HIT at all times forget about defence or Selecting an ideal perfect ball


Not to mention , international 2-3 months tours were normal , not only teams played against National Teams you had chance to enjoy stats and performances vs A sides and Departmentals selected teams


Elimination of Bouncers:
Single handedly made the game for Weak of hearts and fancy pants
Bouncers used to be Fast Bowler's MAIN WEAPON of choice to tame a overly explosive batsmen , get too fancy and hit on the helmet was due to calm the boy down

Againt interference by cricket bodies for making it a 1 sided affair focus on batsmen

 

[Jungibaaz]

I think the game has already started a decline , before 50's and 100's were marked by celebrations and sense of accomplishment , and Cricket council has single highhandedly destroyed that feel from the game.

Those folks who never had chance to understand the grueling nature of 5 day format and fast yet tactically challenging 1 Day cricket will not understand what damage has already been done

Cricket used to be a sport about calculated risk , a balance between Offense & Solid Defense, strike too much and you go home with small total , play too slowly and you run out of chance to win , so it was always a balance

There was balance between Bowling & Batting lineups , the long format of game offered teams to customize and value players that could extend their defense capabilities and also throw in few offensive players

All Rounders reveled in the longer format because it was truly in longer formats did they get enough chance to play enough balls to show their class not only bowling but also getting enough balls to make tail ender's last stand

A double century used to be of value of awe and admiration , it signified that the player stood for days to battle out every thing the other team could throw at him including kitchen sink

The new format is not cricket it has merely become a game of chance

The biggest element that has disappeared is the need for players to come to crease and play 10-20 balls to settle in

Agree with all the rest.

But it isn't a game of chance. It's simply a batsman's game. Powerplay, fielding restrictions, limited number of bouncers and short balls, which is ridiculous bouncers are a pacer's tool, it's like limiting the number of strokes a batsman can play, free hits on no balls.

 

[Kaniska]

Agree with all the rest.

But it isn't a game of chance. It's simply a batsman's game. Powerplay, fielding restrictions, limited number of bouncers and short balls, which is ridiculous bouncers are a pacer's tool, it's like limiting the number of strokes a batsman can play, free hits on no balls.

And the worst part of modern day cricket is that we may not see any more of Andy Roberts, Soib Akhtar or Wasim Akram or Kapil Dev in modern day cricket...Any oridnary batsman can punish a qulity bowler...Its just a matter of entertainment...

 

[arp2041]

I don't get the IPL bashing, no one seems to have a problem with club football.

You have to chk the "MOTIVE" in both the cases................

Club football was started way back (century back) when there was no money involved & ppl used to watch & play only for the LOVE of sports, while IPL's very MOTIVE was generating money while "SPORTS" went to back burner.

 

[Mythal]

Kettle calling the pot black?
Synchronized swimming can be a part of Olympics but same guys were iffy about wrestling.

 

[pumkinduke]

Lets face it guys in a way it is true bcci is spoiling the sport cnt blame the bcci only for this, whole ICC too for taking such decisions....
just imagine how wud it be if cricket was played in asian games and mayb in near future in the olympics...
make it more global...!

 

[RISING SUN]

I don't think anyone understands the motives in this case, at least from my point of view. Asian olympics unit is saying they wish to promote cricket in the region. I wonder how much else promotion does India needs nowadays. Hell I don't think we need to promote it in India at all. Why? Because cricket is our religion, we live in cricket and we feel cricket. Promote where its required, not in India. Spare us the bullsh!t. We know what this olympics assciations are interested in. It is all about dollers, nothing else. Otherwise we wouldn't be hearing partiality from all around sports fraternity in olympics. And anyway according to our esteemed friends we are no one in cricket talent. So why should they bother about a nation like India which can't be a source for generating the money and talent in sports. Angur khatte hai dosttttt. Thank you.

Cricket is being killed. It's a beautiful game being turned into batsman's game. And overwhelmingly BCCI and then the ICC are to blame. Thanks to them, you might not ever produce another player the likes of Rahul Dravid or Tendulkar, only meatnecks with no grace who only smash the ball 100 meters.

Friend you don't understand even a little what cricket means to us and we increase its pentration in our youth like me right from school days. We recieve financial help from them in maintaining our training infrastructure that says about their commitment. Don't wanna hear the same from greedy people who just use promotion word to earn some ₹₹₹₹₹₹. Thank you.