May 18, 2003

If cricket has never had a king, that doesn’t mean that Dalmiya cannot vie for the spot. He is, in fact, busy planning the takeover right now, with the help of the purported Afro-Asian alliance

“THERE shall be peace in our time.” Those were the words of British Prime Minister, Sir Neville Chamberlain, as he stepped off the plane in England and waved the signed treaty from his meeting with the German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, in Munich, 1938. Then, Hitler had assured the world that he had no intention of attacking his neighbours. Only Winston Churchill balked at the announcement.

A few weeks later, German troops marched into Czechoslovakia.

Yes, history is littered with promises and statements of good intentions. Very rarely do they come true.

The most recent example was the PCB’s pledge that the players have been spoken to and they will therefore return as victors. There will be victory in our time. (Of course when the Review report came out the media was blamed for putting pressure on the players by expecting too much.)

So now we have heard that India will be coming to Pakistan to play cricket again. However, it is now Gen. Tauqir Zia who has seen the light and like Winston Churchill wants to see ground realities before he sends his troops to the Asia Cup. Indian cricket chief Jagmohan Dalmiya is playing Chamberlain, promising resumption of cricket in our time.

He apparently has stepped off the plane after his understanding with the Indian policy makers. Can he be trusted to deliver the Indian team? There is a feeling that he can.

Dalmiya has always been a shrewd man. He is also ambitious and terribly obsessed with his vision of becoming the Asian cricket leader. He has a record of taking on the ICC at every opportunity and the men at Lord’s know that. His last spat has been over the implementation of the ambush marketing clause leading up to the 2003 World Cup. India has paid for this confrontation through the bank. Its $9 million share from the World Cup profits has been withheld by the ICC. That has been to compensate for losses due to their global partners’ inability to cash in on stars like Tendulkar the way they were promised.

A couple of years back, he had feuded with the men in Lord’s over the decision by the ICC match referee Mike Denness to fine five Indian players before the third Test in South Africa. India refused to drop Virendar Sehwag. The ICC termed the game unofficial as South Africa backed Dalmiya and participated even after India included Sehwag.

The lines of battle had been drawn then. The non-white countries were standing back to back, ready to defend each other against what they termed as Western arrogance.

The match was played. South Africa won and Shaun Pollock called it a farce, or something like that. Dalmiya eventually backed off and accepted the ICC classification of the match.

Dalmiya’s ultimate goal always has been to replace Lord’s with Calcutta as the epicentre of cricket. He is not enamoured by the Indian media but the left-wingers and liberals tend to appreciate silently what he is doing. Some say that his intentions are guised under nationalism. They say it is more a selfish ambition to be the emperor of cricket. Today Asia, tomorrow the world.

However, for the past three years, his dreams of global dominance have been frustrated by the Indian government. If Dalmiya is unable to get Asia together then how could he possibly manage the world?

That is why Dalmiya has left no opportunity to back Pakistan. He knows that a united Asia is vital if he is to achieve his objectives. Already Pakistan owes one to him when as President of ICC, Dalmiya overruled an on-going ICC investigation regarding Shoaib Akhtar’s bowling action and reinstated him to international cricket.

It was the triangular in Australia, that included India as well. Pakistan was playing Australia and Shoaib came to Sydney Cricket Ground direct from the airport. He played the match and helped Pakistan win.

Therefore, Dalmiya must feel that he has played his part in supporting Pakistan. He would like it to be said that it was because of an Indian that Shoaib came back to international cricket. That the PCB could only have done so much because it had been a technical complaint and the ICC was bound to listen to the umpires who had reported him. Only an ICC President could have moved machinery to have Shoaib cleared.

In Dubai earlier this month, Dalmiya has seized the moment like a seasoned statesman. His chance to pursue his plan of global influence has come alive again. The files on cricket resumption have been dusted and action minutes being re-read.

So what is driving this coming coalition in Asian cricket? Simple. The master word is control. Control over the players and the sponsor money. Dalmiya has seen the coming strategy of the ICC. That is to control the game’s resources. There is nothing wrong with that of course. As the game’s governing body they have every right. However, one gets the feeling that Dalmiya remains deeply suspicious that Asia will not get its due share.

He believes that it’s the Asian market that is driving the game. He wants a paradigm shift to the East. To have administrative control. Over the direction the game takes, sponsorship deals and player marketing.

He knows that in games where India does not play, tenders by broadcasters fall by half. Threatened withdrawals cause heart attacks to the organizers. So what happens when India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan talk as one voice?

In Sri Lanka last September, Malcolm Speed, the ICC Chief Executive, was very forthcoming in his criticism of Dalmiya as he blamed him for not informing the Indian players in time about the competitor clause. The terms had been communicated in June 2000 to the cricket boards. Dalmiya was the BCCI president when the contracts were signed in June 2002. It looked mysterious then that Dalmiya had indeed kept the players unaware until they were fully committed with companies in direct competition with the ICC’s global partners.

Deeply nationalistic Indian corporate giants were angered that they could not ally their products and services with their own citizens. The matter blew up to become an emotional issue with the Indian population. The ICC management was at times seen as usurpers of Indian cricketers’ earnings; at another as the 21st century East India Company.

No wonder then that, in the ICC meeting at Johannesburg on the eve of the final, both Malcolm Speed and Malcolm Gray, the Chairman, as well as ECB and ACB, put pressure on the Indians. That they also told PCB that any compensation on cancelled tours was unwarranted and fined Sri Lanka for not getting their players to sign player contracts. The conference had a definitive anti-Asia look.

The way the Indian cricket team played upto the final also worked for Dalmiya. Now Indian cricket is on a renewed high. Sponsors are lining up to link up with them. Any tournament involving Indians goes at a premium.

So if the Asia Cup was to die its natural death, it would have stymied the momentum formed so far. Dalmiya’s plans already involved roping in the anti-white sentiments of the South African cricket board and attaching them with similar feelings in Kenya and Zimbabwe to form an Afro-Asia block. Kenya’s victory against Sri Lanka and a creditable fight against India in the semi-final boosted chances for another potential vote in two years time.

The next step would be the quick implementation of the Afro-Asia Cup. In fact, some want it as early as this December. Whatever the timing, it will bring in more revenue, but mostly to Asia.

The cricket boards of Australia and England are already irked by Bangladesh’s premature promotion, on the recommendation of India and Pakistan. They have had nothing to show in the past three years except their vote. That will always go to the Asian boards who maintain its lifeline.

Since sport — like tourism, agriculture and industry — moves with, and is affected by, the geo-political factors, therefore the time is right for the Asian cricket countries to come together. India may be an ally of America but it has seen them move into the neighbourhood. They don’t need to read too far into history to see that Germany and Russia decided to divide Poland in half before fighting with each other.

Once warring armies come to settle in foreign lands, there will never be peace during that time. So if cricket has to be the ice breaker in relations with Pakistan, then India will do it and even China will be happy. Who knows, that may lure the Chinese into playing this game after all. They have been watching it from across the border. Once they see it bringing the region together, they would like nothing better than to be part of it.

Imagine the ICC headquarters one day in Shanghai. For sure, will forever rest in peace.

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