“Blame is the comfort of the weak. Change is the name of a warrior, so we must be willing to make that change that would make a difference and not keep blaming each other” – This, from Trinidad and Tobago PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar telling West Indian cricketers to end their feud with the sport’s administrators, is the best cricketing quote we’ve heard in a very long time.
“We pissed off a lot of people” – Lalit Modi, speaking at a conference in Watford gives a sneak preview of his defence strategy.
“Not one ball. I don’t watch Twenty20. It is dumbing-down cricket. They should find another name for it” – West Indian great Michael Holding has not drunk the World Cup Kool-Aid any more than Geoff Boycott has.
“There has also disagreement between the parties over the “crown jewels” list of events that must be shown on free-to-air TV. An independent review for the last government proposed that cricket’s Ashes Test matches staged in the UK should be added to the list – but this was opposed by sports bodies and BSkyB. The Liberal Democrats favoured the Ashes being added to the list. The Conservatives opposed it, saying it could cost the sport millions of pounds. There may be an economic impact test before any decision is taken” – the BBC explains what the UK’s new coalition government might mean for cricket fans.
“Ignore for a moment the implication that [Panesar] is now England’s fifth-choice spinner, behind Graeme Swann (fair enough), James Tredwell (how long will he last at Test level?), Adil Rashid (still trading on promise rather than results) and Michael Yardy (do me a favour) – because that, for a man with 126 Test wickets and eight five-fors to his name, is ridiculous enough. Throw in the fact that the selectors have been making encouraging overtures to Ian Blackwell while keeping a paternal eye on Samit Patel’s waistline, and the reality could be even less palatable” – Lawrence Booth feels that the decision to leave Monty out of the England Performance Squad is a decision that may come back to haunt the selectors.
“India’s finance minister said ‘no wrong-doer would be spared’ in the probe into the league’s funding. But IPL chief Lalit Modi denies any allegations of funding irregularities” – Schadenfreude is bad. Yes it is. Bad. Now stop that outrageous laughter at once.
“If a complete or partial pull-out this summer – in defence of national honour and ‘face’ – is the worst-case scenario for England, then six Tests without Kaneria would be a minor disaster on the playing side, because it is almost inconceivable that Pakistan could win a Test without him” – The Telegraph considers the potential implications of the latest match-fixing kerfuffle for the summer’s fixtures.
“You’d think that somewhere along the line there’d be at least a moment of thought for the core product of cricket. But sadly not. And so it is losing its way horribly, led astray by a group of county chairmen fatally smitten by vast quantities of one-day cricket” – Steve James despairs of the sport’s administraton.
“One of the big reasons why we extended it for two years and didn’t extend it further is because we’ve got some concerns over what is going to happen in 2012… our understanding is that no other sporting event is allowed to happen in London during that period” – npower explains why the London Olympics has caused them to review their sponsorship of English domestic Test cricket.
“Of course he ran a country from 1996 to 2007, which qualifies a person for many things, but he now enters a complicated past-time on the basis of his diplomatic skills. In the meetings he will be a cricket fan in an executive chair made for people who have lived their lives deciding on matters at club, state and international level” – Cricinfo ruminates on the appointment of former Australian premier John Howard as ICC president – and wonders how he will negotiate the complex diplomatic maze ahead.