To be called back from a World Cup just for eating a delicious Italian meal in a New Zealand casino with family and friends must rate as the funniest tale in a long time.
Cricket’s ambivalent relationship with itself as a guardian of morality is reflected in this stern action against a chief selector who went innocently enough to a casino. The recall of the Bangladesh player H... for late night conversations with a bookie might be something the ACSU would welcome even if the corruption fighter is not exactly known for taking prompt action against the unseemly goings-on that have marred the game over the years.
Moin Khan’s protestations of innocence may not cut much ice because Pakistan is doing badly in the World Cup, having lost two matches and reduced to competing with Ireland for a place in the last eight.
Read: Pakistan chief selector Moin Khan criticised for casino visit
There is always one rule when teams are doing well and another when the national hunt for a scapegoat picks up steam. The curfew-defying Pakistani players, who were probably out for filling late night meal with their ‘punters’ as their diaspora patrons are called, did not help the team cause either. The while world knows of the struggle for harmony in any Pakistan team, which only very strong leaders like Imran Khan could get over.
Bangladesh’s dalliance with the Asian betting mafia has been a sad feature of an ambitious cricket nation. This is not the first occasion on which Indian bookies, well known for their sun tans and their exotic holidays, have been caught trying to get a line to the Bangladesh team, however hopeless cricketers may be as pundits in forecasting games. It is suspected that it was a bookie nexus which derailed poor al-Amin Hossain’s World Cup. Such an opportunity as a presence on the big stage when the Antipodes are hosting a World Cup is not to be missed for the silly task of trying to enrich some illegal bookie looking to bend the odds in his favour.
Read: Bangladesh send Al-Amin home after ‘breaching team rules’
Shane Warne missed the 2003 World Cup because of his mother’s remedy of a simple diuretic to keep her tubby boy slim. The excuse did not cut ice with the dope testing authorities who sent him packing from South Africa on the eve of the competition, the suspicion being the drug could have speeded up his recovery from a shoulder injury.
One of cricket’s great personalities is still in the news at the World Cup, this time for disrupting Australian preparations by suggesting that coach Darren Lehman should leave it to the captain Michael Clarke to run the ship. The 1999 World Cup winning captain Steve Waugh immediately took objection saying the comment will have an unsettling effect on the team, so too his brother Mark and Matthew Hayden.
The Afghanistanis may not win enough matches to qualify but they certainly made history when they pipped Scotland in the last over with the last men in. They might head back to the unsettling effect of the war against the Taliban, but they can hold their heads high after beating a nation that made its cricket debut in the 19th century. Their cartwheeling hero Hamid Hassan, who was batting right up to the end in the Afghanis’ famous victory at the Gabba on Thursday, will be remembered for his athleticism in the field and an acrobatic ability to turn the body over and over again like some Olympic gymnast. With his red bandana and war paint on the cheeks, he resembles Rambo, the kind of cult hero who is bound to be worshipped in the strife torn mountainous country, Hamid even made it to the Wall Street Journal, his act being dubbed the ‘Commando roll.’ Trust Hollywood to make filmy heroics seem larger than life.
Read: Hamid Hassan somersaults into ‘Wall Street Journal’
The ‘frog in a blender’ left arm unorthodox spinner from South Africa, Paul Adams, used to do the cartwheels too, but those were early days when these things were seen as a minor curiosity.
The World Cup stage makes everything seem bigger, including the actions of the minnows, who sadly will be missing in the next World Cup, in the UK in 2019, if cricket sticks to its plan of just inviting 10 top teams rather than a more inclusive 14. The media is agonising over this rather more than the cricket establishment, which these days worships Mammon as God, thanks to BCCI moneybags.
