The Spectator

India is slated to resume international cricket after a break of almost two months; the longest since the advent of the IPL. Just as this break is about to complete, the BCCI has hinted at hosting Pakistan during the 2.5 week break during late December-early January. There have been spontaneous responses to that announcement; a mixed bag comprising of those who believe that 26/11 should be the roadblock for such a series and others who feel such a series can resume the ‘politically’ estranged ties between the two nations. There are couple of dimensions to this entire story and only a few have highlighted vociferously thus far. Firstly let us delineate this whole business of ‘cricket diplomacy’. If cricket indeed was the sole reason for fostering cold relations, then each and every match between India and Pakistan during the last decade or so should have made it even more affectionate. India and Pakistan have featured quite a number of times in the last decade, yet every outing i

India’s 16 that were picked for the Sri Lankan tour originally didn’t have an ‘all-rounder’; a few eyebrows rose as a consequence. A fast bowler gets injured and an all-rounder is drafted into the mix as the replacement! Indian team selections or replacements have never been flawless, in terms of reasoning or justification, and neither been according to logic, at times! The debate around Irfan getting a chance at international cricket is a different topic altogether. The bigger picture is that around the obsession surrounding the word ‘all-rounder’ in and around India’s cricketing circles. How would you define an all-rounder in cricket? It is such a subjective question to answer and more so when we have a habit of analyzing the game so much that we demand a certain set of numbers to qualify a player as an all-rounder.

Match-fixing has been cricket’s biggest downer over the last decade or so and recent revelations and consequent punishments suggest that the saga hasn’t ceased. Committing mistakes is not a problem but not attempting to rectify them is a bigger problem. When the corruption charges were proved first about a decade ago the cricketing community was shocked and the game’s repute was at stake. Names with impeccable integrity and transparency sailed cricket through that tough weather. Times have changed: match-fixing allegations don’t raise your eyebrows instantaneously anymore, instead of complete matches’, manipulation of a few moments have come to the fore, cricket players have been jailed for proven corruption charges yet you get a sense not enough efforts are going in to make the game transparent.