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By Bhavya Kumar Vasudevan

It just seems that next time the Indians will be suspended for catching, scoring 50's and 100's, and even for winning, since they have been suspended for all other possible reasons. The ICC don't even leave the youngsters alone, and they time their move perfectly with the most important match against Pakistan coming up. The suspension of Ambati Rayudu before such an important game has left everyone stunned. It just makes one wonder that why does it always happen with only Indians.

What was most strange about Rayudu's suspension was that it was said to be excessive time wasting. If anyone has seen that game against Sri Lanka will know the way Sri Lanka started with a bang. A place in the Semi-finals was in danger. Rayudu used up a little time to get everything in place. Yet they bowled 8 overs in 50 minutes with seamers in action which is not that bad. Surely the spinners would have made up for the time lost in the early overs. Calling that deliberate wastage of time is atrocious. Mr. Brian Jerling (umpire) will be well advised not to come to India to officiate in any matches. He was just too nasty with Rayudu during that innings. To suspend him before such an important stage for the first time in the tournament is asking a lot of questions on the integrity of the officials and of ICC.

Sometimes I am forced to believe that ICC is being prejudice and are only targeting Indians. Perhaps the time has come when India should think about boycotting ICC. It was all well when Mr. Dalmiya was the president of ICC. Indians would get suspensions even then, but only for legitimate reasons. I just think that Mr. Malcolm Speed is pushing himself a little too much, and he better be careful from now on.

The Indians are the most highly paid cricketers in the world, so it just works out perfectly for the ICC to cut their match fees for no reason and call it as a breach in the Code of Conduct. A 50% cut of an Indian's match fees is more than what the top officials in ICC get in a month. So when they penalize an Indian cricketer their match fees are slashed to as high as 80%. They get a lot of money. During the VB series Ganguly, Dravid and Pathan were the chosen ones. The ICC must have made enough money during that tour to pay their employees their monthly salaries. It gets clearer and clearer that the ICC has briefed all the match referees and umpires to target the Indians every time they play, so that they can make money.  

Observing closely, it comes to notice that Mr. Venkatraghavan has recently stepped down from the ICC's elite panel of umpires. He was amongst the top 3 umpires in the world. Who would want to leave a job that has a lot of money and gets to travel all around the world? Not me. Yes, but if I was told to go against my own team, I would laugh on their face and step down. Another observation is that in the last three months, Steve Bucknor has been so stringent with the Indians. He has officiated in matches involving India, but never has his attitude been so villainous. The best example of ICC targeting the Indians was the incident which involved almost the entire team in South Africa. So serious was the issue at the time, that every Indian lashed out at the ICC and at Mike Dennesse and against the ICC'S wishes played that unofficial test match.

I feel that the time has come that the BCCI stops this nonsense. ICC is taking too much liberty and perhaps it should be reminded that it is nothing but an autonomous body, which is hanging on the edge. If they push themselves anymore they will fall like a pack of cards! 

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