ICC is the loser in SCG fiasco

All’s well that… well, doesn’t end in a three-match ban for Harbhajan Singh.

In the process, the danger to the one-day tri-series has been removed, but perhaps more importantly, India’s status as the cricket world’s superpower has been reiterated.

This comes through obliquely in the terms of the settlement, with even the Australian players-witnesses finally dropping charges against Harbhajan.

After all the dust and storm that had been raised over the past few weeks, perhaps all parties concerned were prepared to appear before Judge Hansen in a spirit of ‘forgive and forget’. Looked at in another way, Cricket Australia and the BCCI cannot do without each other, so perhaps good sense had to prevail.

But in almost every other sense, the Indian team’s position in the controversy has been vindicated, the only tangible loss being Harbhajan Singh having to forfeit 50 per
cent of his Rs 2.5 lakh fees for the Sydney Test. That is a tab that the BCCI would pick up readily.

What happens from here? I think cricket will be a gainer, while the ICC is a clear loser. The Sydney ruckus has highlighted to the cricket world — and players in particular — that there is a limit beyond which gamesmanship becomes unacceptable and counter-productive.

There will be some serious internalization of this by players across the world, and the Indians cannot be exempt from this. Indeed, I suspect that the Indian players will be watched more closely, at least in the near future, to see how they subscribe to their own belief system.

That said, I hope a new level of awareness about how the game should be played has been established in this series. This does not mean that there should be less aggression or show of passion in the middle; that would be a flawed concession to what is essentially a ‘conflict’ in which both sides necessarily have to play to win.

But cultural and other sensitivities will not be completely discarded even the extreme heat of battle.

But if the players are now hopefully chastened, the ICC’s image stands sullied. The elite panel of umpires stands discredited, as does the match referee after Mike Procter’s three-match ban on Harbhajan was summarily overturned by Judge Hansen on Tuesday.

My apprehension is that more players and teams might be emboldened to ‘take on’ umpires and match referees in the future. That does not bode well for the sport. Too many controversies can reduce cricket to a farce.

Some serious thought needs to be given to governance issues if the a similar row has to be prevented.