Bangladesh-ICC dispute shows cricket in poor light

LIFE IMITATES ART, as the saying goes.

- Tushar Bhaduri

In recent times, sports imitates politics.The maxim ‘might is right’ is in implementation wherever one casts an eye. Whether it’s abducting a head of a foreign state, threatening to annex another country’s territory, or doing what one pleases in global affairs, some people can seemingly do anything they please because they hold most of the cards. The situation is not too different in world cricket at the moment. Decisions are taken not with sporting logic in mind, but to make political points.

The India-Bangladesh-International Cricket Council (ICC) triple threat match with regard to the T20 World Cup could have been easily avoided if all participants had thought things out clearly before saying anything or taking a decision, and had cricket front and centre in their minds.

Pakistan players have not been part of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after the inaugural edition in 2008. There has never been any formal reason given, but there was an informal agreement involving the BCCI and the franchises on not bidding for any of their cricketers in the next auction, in the wake of the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. Subsequently, players from across the western border have ceased to be part of the auction pool and their absence from the biggest domestic T20 league doesn’t even raise eyebrows now.

The domestic turmoil in Bangladesh had been going on for a while, and the alleged targeting of minorities there had been in the news for months, with the Indian government taking it up with the Muhammad Yunus administration. If India and the BCCI were so inclined, they could have kept Bangladesh players out of the IPL in much the same way as they had omitted Pakistanis so many years ago. It may have even been passed off as a decision based on cricketing merit. After all, only Mustafizur Rahman found any takers in the auction despite seven being part of the auction pool.