Comment: Why Tony Greig is Right About India

There is no doubt that Tony Greig is one of the most polarizing individuals in cricket, but whether you love him or hate him is irrelevant to the matter of his Spirit of Cricket Lecture, which he delivered at Lord’s as per the annual custom.

There has been a massive backlash from Indian fans after Greig’s lecture, ostensibly because of his bizarre focus on the BCCI taking control of world cricket.

Most arguments against Greig’s speech have been largely ad hominem, attempting to undermine his credibility by embarking on an all-out assault.

“He’s old,” “he’s blinkered,” “he’s got a chip on his shoulder” have all been bandied about in sentiment. Objectivity has been sorely lacking.

Some of the more vitriolic tweets from Indian quarters have attempted to give as good as they (perceive to) get, and it has been entertaining to see so many people attempt a character assassination in 140 characters or less.

However, as Sidvee put it perfectly:

Stirring the pot was Greig’s one-time co-commentator, and now Twitter-sparrer, Harsha Bhogle:

shouldn’t it be quite easy to resolve all issues in world cricket when evil resides exclusively in one country?
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) June 27, 2012

These were spectacularly ill-conceived comments, with Bhogle forsaking any sort of logic, instead pandering to a following of 400,000 (largely Indian) fans.

It served to underline the ridiculous nature of cricket ‘debates’ on the internet. No wonder so many prawn sandwich-munching cricket commentators still look down on Twitter as a forum for pre-teens to circlejerk over their favourite team, instead of a forum where 140 characters can encompass incisive debate between sharp minds.

Noam Chomsky once described sport as “indoctrination irrational jingoism”, and it’s been all too apparent in the reaction to Greig’s speech. Not wanting to take a nihilistic view, but sometimes, the utter futility of sport is exposed by the silliness of its fans.

Ultimately for fans, sport is an anaesthetic that dulls the pain of our daily lives.

“My team is better than yours. You support a ‘small’ club. That one time a few years ago, your player dropped a catch and it made a whole country upset for a long time.”

Seriously.

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To objectively analyze Greig’s speech, we must consider:

- Greig’s speech (and recent history of comments) smack of a consistent disdain for the BCCI. For whatever reason, it seems as if he has some sort of agenda. It could be that he is genuinely concerned for the health of cricket and that he is the only blessed one who can absolve us of our sins before it’s too late, or it could be something more personal – in any case, we are only interested in the content of Greig’s speech in the context of moving cricket forward. We should be willing to allow any pot

- Greig’s involvement in World Series Cricket and personal history is irrelevant in the context of his thoughts on the BCCI. He explained his motivations for joining WSC at the beginning of his speech, and while to some the reasons will seem fair, to others, Greig will always remain a mercenary. Considering his heavy involvement in the anti-establishment ICL, it would have been prudent for Greig to acknowledge his own background when imploring the BCCI to put the spirit of cricket ahead of financial opportunities(!).

- Any speech is going to pale in comparison when you’re following on from Kumar Sangakkara.

Even at first look, there are many gaps in Greig’s speech. Let’s be honest, this wasn’t the greatest Cowdrey Lecture we’ll ever witness. It was sloppy and unoriginal, and ultimately just a compendium of views that Greig had already told us over the years.

For example, there is an odd part of Tony Greig’s speech where he mentions that lie detector tests should be compulsory for all cricketers. Polygraphs have been dismissed as pseudoscience long ago, we’ll ignore that oversight from Greig and skip to the more important parts (INDIA, INDIA, INDIA!).

Still, some of Greig’s thoughts are salient and deserve our attention. So, if the idea of taking medicine from the hand of Uncle Tony is unpalatable, look away now.

Now, this much is a fact: India has the most money in the game by a considerable distance (net worth of BCCI: US$550m), and be it in a world of business or a world of sport, such a monopoly is never healthy.

In the ICC, the mere presence of the BCCI constitutes a major threat, and has done since it capitalized on TV rights deals.

Now, the BCCI is not a non-profit organization, and to be honest, it should be lauded for achieving annual revenues (US$39.68m for the year ending 2011) that would take most other nations years to achieve. However, in the context of its decision-making authority within the ICC, the BCCI is dangerous for obvious reasons.

The chief reason has manifested itself manifold times over the past decade: Money = Power.

Outside the sports world, just look at the likes of Microsoft, who were sued for abuse of monopoly. In recent times, Google and Apple have also been accused of such crimes, which involve attempting to actively crush rival companies, but this has been a problem as long as the concept of money has existed.

Currently, it is patently obvious that the BCCI have a monopoly within the ICC. Board members will tread on eggshells, and go out of their way so as not to offend an Indian representative. Heaven forbid the Sri Lankan representative accidentally spills some red wine on the BCCI man’s pristine white shirt.

That’ll be just the one-Test series and three ODIs for you, Sri Lanka.======================================

The BCCI’s power vacuum has been there for all to see over the past decade. For example, Bangladesh owe their Test status to the BCCI, without whom the very idea would have been swiftly dismissed.

As Greig correctly said:

“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.”

Sadly, Greig failed to offer too many viably solutions to the many problems he raised: DRS, prioritize Test cricket, put BCCI self-interest to one side.

In an unfeasibly crowd-pleasing end to his speech, Greig said:

“Fortunately, I think most of the problems can generally be addressed if India invokes and adheres to the spirit of cricket. Mahatma Gandhi said: “A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people. As cricket certainly resides in the hearts and souls of Indian people I am optimistic India will lead cricket by acting in the best interests of all countries rather than just for India.”

Asking the BCCI to take the spirit of cricket over money? You’ve got to be kidding me.

BCCI can’t feed its kids with ‘spirit of cricket’.

It can’t go to its trustees and say: “Sorry Mr Ambani, you have less money, but at least we did it in the spirit of the game.”

As it stands, we’re at an impasse on manifold issues, and it’s thanks to the BCCI’s self-interest and effective ‘power of veto’ at board level. Imagine if America was the only country to have a veto at the UN Security Council? This is the situation we’re facing in cricket right now.

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Given that BCCI are primarily only interested in maximizing their profits – they have every right to do so – and so there are only two solution to reduce BCCI’s power and make the ICC a more democratic place:

1. A revolt from the masses, where countries effectively either threatened and/or bribed by the BCCI take a stand and say ‘enough is enough’, as they quiver in fear of the mother of all bitchslaps on a floodlit street corner.

2. Embrace the BCCI as our almighty overlords, keep giving them foot massages as soon as they come home after a hard day’s work, and then hope that eventually, they’ll see the humane side of cricket through the vast forest of $$$, and ultimately morph into a benign dictatorship.

Neither of these is going to happen any time soon, unless some chairmen put themselves forward for steel ball transplants.

As Ravi Shastri once said: “Ultimately, you can’t spell ‘ICC’ without ‘BCCI’. [awkard silence] Over to you, Siva.”======================================As an addendum, I believe that Tony Greig is a highly entertaining commentator. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes not.