{"id":1782,"date":"2015-08-11T10:35:16","date_gmt":"2015-08-11T08:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/?p=1782"},"modified":"2015-08-11T10:35:16","modified_gmt":"2015-08-11T08:35:16","slug":"english-football-holds-lessons-for-cricket-as-elites-hijack-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/english-football-holds-lessons-for-cricket-as-elites-hijack-the-game\/","title":{"rendered":"English football holds lessons for cricket, as elites hijack the game"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"David<\/a>
Recent changes to cricket governance orchestrated by the \u2018Big Three\u2019 \u2013 India, England and Australia \u2013 guarantee that they will command most of the game\u2019s billions. (AAP Image\/Joe Castro)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just as Australian cricket followers are\u00a0coming to terms<\/a>\u00a0with the loss of the (men\u2019s) Ashes and the impending departure of captain Michael Clarke, the national broadcaster has warned them of a far more depressing prospect \u2013 the loss of cricket.<\/p>\n

Australia was the architect of its own failure in the cauldrons of Cardiff, Edgbaston and Trent Bridge, and it could be equally instrumental in the demise of cricket from the air-conditioned headquarters of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in Dubai.<\/p>\n

ABC\u2019s Four Corners is the five-day Test match of Australian current affairs television. Long-running (in both senses), its soberly chilling stories contrast with the day-nighter rush of 60 Minutes or the Twenty20 crash and bash of The Project. So, it was fitting that\u00a0The Great Cricket Coup<\/a>, Four Corners\u2019 critical examination of world cricket\u2019s governance, should be keenly focused on Test cricket in peril.<\/p>\n

The program opened, almost inevitably, with reporter Quentin McDermott at Lord\u2019s Cricket Ground in London, which equally inevitably is described as the \u201chome of cricket\u201d. Among the gents in striped blazers reading right-wing newspapers there are rumblings that India and its fabulous riches are taking control of the noble game and debauching it.<\/p>\n

These concerns are shared by two significant figures in the game: abrasive former Australian captain and veteran Channel Nine commentator Ian Chappell, and Michael Holding, a long-retired West Indies fast bowler and one-time member of the ICC Cricket Committee who now plies his trade with Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

The consternation is over recent changes to ICC governance orchestrated by the \u201cBig Three\u201d \u2013 India, England and Australia. These changes guarantee that they will command most of the multi-billion-dollar revenue of world cricket. This\u00a0leaves<\/a>\u00a0the other seven full members, 38 associate members and 57 affiliate members to squabble over the scraps.<\/p>\n

The likely result is that cricket, which has aspirations to become a global game despite the limitations of its growth trajectory along the lines plotted by the old British Empire, would shrink back to a few strongholds.<\/p>\n

India, having swapped places with the former cricket hegemon England, would live handsomely off its domestic Twenty20 competition, the Indian Premier League (IPL), one-day and Twenty20 World Cups, and the occasional Test match. Australia and England would still have the Ashes money-spinner, international tournaments and tours involving India.<\/p>\n

But other established cricket nations (including South Africa, Pakistan, New Zealand and the West Indies) and those that are emerging (such as Afghanistan, Ireland, Scotland and the United Arab Emirates) would struggle to compete for resources and improve their playing standards and audience appeal. A sign of the coming times is the decision to\u00a0cut participating teams<\/a>\u00a0in the ICC World Cup from the 14 that played in the 2015 event in Australia and New Zealand to ten in England in 2019.<\/p>\n

Four Corners interviewed parties for and against the new arrangements, with a clear preponderance of the latter. The program moves to cricket\u2019s 21st-century epicentre, India, and meets Narayanaswami Srinivasan, former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and current ICC chairman. Journalist Gideon Haigh describes him here as:<\/p>\n

\u2026 the most powerful man that there has ever been in cricket.<\/p>\n

Srinivasan unashamedly argues that, given India\u2019s\u00a0generation<\/a>\u00a0of 75-80% of world cricket\u2019s income, what\u2019s good for India is good for world cricket. This blunt lesson in the logic of post-colonial cricket capitalism is accompanied by an education in the murky politics and dodgy economics of cricket in India, with its intricate deal-making, black-market betting and\u00a0IPL spot-fixing<\/a>\u00a0scandals.<\/p>\n

When his\u00a0relationship<\/a>\u00a0with IPL team Chennai Super Kings and\u00a0illegal betting<\/a>\u00a0by his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan are raised, the redoubtable Srinivasan walks out of the room.<\/p>\n

Enter the flamboyant marketeer, IPL founder, Srinivasan nemesis and BCCI outcast Lalit Modi. He threatens to overthrow the ICC via a Kerry Packer-style coup, requiring only a paltry, easily raised \u201cfew billion dollars\u201d in a move he describes as being \u201cfor the players\u201d.<\/p>\n

Facing an Indian\u00a0arrest warrant<\/a>\u00a0for money laundering, Modi is stranded in London, a Julian Assange-like figure with greater everyday mobility. Four Corners seems to prefer Modi\u2019s brash Bollywood-inspired brand of business-in-exile to the dour Machiavellianism of Srinivasan.<\/p>\n

The program is repelled nonetheless by contemporary cricket\u2019s monetary fixation and dismayed by Cricket Australia\u2019s complicity in it all, and especially its selling out of other cricket nations. But it fails to mention that cricket is but one sport among many where today\u2019s moolah has trumped any sense of responsibility to the future or to others less fortunate.<\/p>\n

If Four Corners\u2019 cameras had panned north from Lord\u2019s in St John\u2019s Wood to Arsenal\u2019s Emirates Stadium and south to Chelsea\u2019s Stamford Bridge, they would have captured two citadels of football\u2019s English Premier League, which was founded on the principle of \u201cto the richest go the spoils\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the EPL\u2019s 23 years to date, four clubs \u2013 Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City \u2013 have between them triumphed on 22 occasions (the sole exception being Blackburn Rovers). This appears to be the India-dominated ICC model for cricket.<\/p>\n

Sport capitalism is no different from any other form in its tendency towards monopoly. But competitive uncertainty is a key selling point. Cricket\u2019s Big Three may thrive for now, yet at the cost of cricket\u2019s future capacity to thrive around the world.<\/p>\n

Whatever happens, it is hoped that Four Corners will be there to document and analyse developments. Public broadcasters, unlike their commercial counterparts and the current Australian cricket team, like to play the long game.<\/p>\n

\n

Previously published by\u00a0theconversation.com<\/a>\u00a0(Academic rigour, journalistic flair).<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Copyright \u00a9 David Rowe 2015<\/strong>
\nEmail:\u00a0d.rowe@uws.edu.au<\/a>
\nTwitter: @rowe_david
\nWebsite:\u00a0http:\/\/www.uws.edu.au\/ics\/people\/researchers\/david_rowe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just as Australian cricket followers are\u00a0coming to terms\u00a0with the loss of the (men\u2019s) Ashes and the impending departure of captain Michael Clarke, the national broadcaster has warned them of a far more depressing prospect \u2013 the loss of cricket. Australia was the architect of its own failure in the cauldrons of Cardiff, Edgbaston and Trent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[36,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-1782","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-okategoriserade","7":"tag-cricket","8":"tag-english-premier-league","9":"tag-india"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2JbBl-sK","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}