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ICC - International Chucking Controversies??? |
A Featured
Article by Karthik Narayan
The game of cricket has advanced beyond the
early days when there were no television rights
scandals and rows over the telecast by certain
channels. Now we have enough headaches and
headlines to read all over the newspapers, this
cricket which has shown brightly past the match
fixing scams and stories is now firmly in the
hands of a few people namely, ICC. With new
rules and regulations every few years and with
new practical views on the laws of the game, the
ICC has gone beyond thronging the streets of
Kolkata or Melbourne for a game of cricket. Now
cricket has advanced to the lanes of America and
through the wide roads of the East side of the
globe.
Things are looking wonderful for the world of
cricket, sponsorship, the globalization of this
game. Or are they really wonderful? Are we
really making a mess of this game of bat and
ball? When it comes to the question of chucking
or throwing, why does the ICC come out with
special package plans to gauge and impose radars
on a special breed of cricketers overlooking
many others?
Why is there always a cloud of smoke and fire
over the bowling actions of certain individuals
all the time while the others go Scot free in
the world? Life has to look beyond the fifteen
degrees of fame. The other day I was watching
Afridi bowl some of his very quick deliveries –
and I had a doubt as to whether those were
actually bowled or thrown. Likewise is the case
for Shoaib Malik and Brett Lee. Sometimes it
does look crooked even to the naked eye that
some are able to extract more from the same
wicket with a “different” action that looks
completely legal in the eyes of the elite Gang.
Why is it that somebody like Muralitharan or
Harbhajan Singh are repeatedly asked to come
through with clean hands with needles pricked
all through their bodies looking like porcupines
with a red cherry, while the others are not
caught red-handed?
Heavens to Fifteen Degrees! For Christ(Broad)’s
sake, will anyone answer these questions?
Perhaps that very gentleman with the English
accent may answer – or a white skinned man for
that matter! When questioned about the unfair
treatment the response we get is – in history
almost every bowler has chucked so far and there
shall be a benchmark for determining this law of
throwing. Which is? As you wonder, cometh the
next season, you will find the field umpires
turn mathematicians with various geometrical
scales of all sizes and shapes and armed with
brand new gizmos to measure the angle of the
arm.
Even as the targets are cleared now and then,
they are targeted again for the mere factor that
they are the prime suspects in the case of the
International Chucking Controversy, and the
police need not look at anyone else. They are
pure for sure that these are the thorns in the
game and are to be detonated with immediate
effect.
And then these are the detrimental devils in
the eyes of the detonating detractors (ICC). So
we shall find this game progressing way ahead of
our times in the very same manner, the pull
strings for drawing beads out a hat to determine
who chucks and who shall be cuckooed next in
this world. Only when a sound policy comes into
force and an unpartisan approach to this dreary
imposition comes into force shall we see through
the sugar candy floss out of our eyes and ears
and everyone equal before the law. Let us all
wait for that day with a united approach for the
imposition of that law and its enforcement in
the just and fair manner.
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