Is there any former cricketer who hasn’t spoken up on the Pakistan-Hair contoversy? The latest is Mr. Michael Holding. He speaks on how the cricket world his divided and how the recent incident only reiterates this fact.
The last time I checked, the subcontinent had 40% of the votes on the ICC panel. The last time I checked, I also found out that most of the money in the game came from the subcontinent. So you would imagine that if any thing, the cricket world would be more in tilted towards the subcontinent. Every cricketer is trying to get his own mileage from the cricket controversy and Mr. Holding is no different in getting mileage from the controversy.
Angshuman Hazra remarks on Holding’s comments:
I am pretty sure that Hair would have gone about the matter just as Mikey says if the fielding team at Oval had been Australia, England, West Indies or even New Zealand.
By speculating and discussing, we are already creating a rift. Maybe, just maybe, the former cricketers can talk on how Md. Hafeez looked promising yesterday or how good Stuart Broad was in the Twenty-20 game.
Holding has got his newsprint and spotlight now and his remarks will be discussed at length. If every one pays Hair royalties for the mileage they are getting out of the controversy, I am sure he will far have more money than he demanded from the ICC.
It seems a little cruel to say that Michael Holding is gaining mileage from the current controversy. The thought of former cricketers keeping quiet about this and instead focussing on the positives would definitely be a wonderful thing (not about to happen anytime though).
Holding’s comments might have opened a can of worms, but coming from someone who hails from a place that is in some ways neutral to the ‘racial’ conflict that we have going on, it definitely needs attention. Like it or not, there is a perception of bias against Asian countries that has gone on for a while now. Hair has been at the center of this and based on his past acts, I am not sure that he would have handled the situation similarly if the team in question was Eng or SA.
Overall, I feel that Holding’s motives should not be questioned!
I think it’s symptomatic of the sporting world we live in that anyone and everyone has given their opinion on recent events – sportsmen’s egos are so big these days that they assume their opinion on things must hold great weight. There are few ex-players whose opinions I listen to, because the majority of them either react in an entirely predictable fashion, or overreact drastically and blow the whole thing out of proportion. Few of them have anything interesting to say – therefore I take Holding’s comments with a pinch of salt.
Yet the fact remains that never has Hair really been involved in anything like this when say New Zealand or England or South Africa or the West Indies has been the fielding team. Never has he called a bowler from any of these teams for chucking (ok forget poor Grant Flower of Zimbabwe)
Never has any Mike Denness dished out a ridiculous verdict against 6 players of any “white” team like he did against India. Never has he accused a Ponting or a Lara of cheating like he did Tendulkar (or as did Clive Lloyd against Dravid)
So all these facts are bound to pile up.
Or are you trying to say that it so happens coincidentally that it is the player from the subcontinent who exclusively cheat or chuck ?
IMHO holding is one of the more respected commentators around right now. i wouldnt view his comments as an exercise in gaining mileage. hes one who calls a spade a spade and would give his comments more weight than some other “esteemed” ex-players.
Thanks for going thru that trash Pratyush;)
But then I have to assume that you would like Holding to keep quiet about this ‘your world’ – ‘our world’ divide, that is as poorly disguised as some slower balls, just because us readers are going to view it as a mileage hunting exercise. As you say, Pratyush, maybe Holding would have done a good service to the theory of status quo if he had called the flame to be doused. But do we laud people who ‘get on with the game’ without a murmur when there IS an issue? It is hardly Holding’s fault that there are differences.
We all love the game on the field and I do not imagine an Indian disrespecting Flintoff or an English abusing Sachin. Both will remain idols everywhere purely for their cricket, but in the present scheme of things Flintoff will be ‘their’ icon and Sachin ‘ours’, even if many of us will love to see it otherwise. This divide is not liable to make a lot of difference to the game I must say; but then be prepared for ‘their’ teams launching walkouts on your promise of protecting them while they continue feeling comfortable amongst their own.
As for Gaurav’s comments, I personally feel racial abuse is a very individual offence and may be treated separately from the present issue. The our and their being spoken here is purely the first and third worlds. It does have racial connotations in the larger perspective but I only referred to the economic divide.
DS and Ravi: I am not targetting Holding but the issue every former cricketer speaking up on this issue which no doubt gets them mileage. Holding is a respectable voice on the game definitely but so are so many other players who have spoken on this issue. Different views have been presented when according to me, the best for the game would be if this nothing matter finishes as soon as possible and as they say, we got on with the game.
Gaurav: Hair has put verdicts against people of non-asian background as well. Grant Flower and Gary Kirsten come to mind. I could have accepted the case of bias against the subcontinent when the subcontinent didn’t have power but not now. Johan Botha also came into question for chucking. Had he been a subcontinent player, people would have felt it is another Asia vs ROW.
We can have a specific individual(s) being biased or racially abusive but I don’t think we can generalise it to Asia vs ROW.
Angshu: I always love what you write and you know that! I don’t see a bias against the subcontinent in the game. As I stated, Asia has 40% votes and large chunk of the money comes from Asia. However, we can always disagree regarding if we feel bias exists or not. Holding has a right to what he feels but I always find it a bit weary when every one who is any one jumps in to give his views and we give views far more weight than they deserve. As Matt said, I think we should take most remarks with a pinch of salt.