by Dwijottam Bhattacharjee
Sunday, November 25, 2001

After the dust has settled, crises often lead to radical improvements. Remember how the Kerry Packer controversy brought about an eventual compromise between new thinkers and traditional purists? Superb television coverage, coloured clothing, one-day cricket, abundant sponsorship and the emergence of the cricketing celebrity have enriched international cricket.

We should realise that nothing is lost yet in this controversy - and nothing need be lost. We need to cool ourselves down, apply reason, try to see where both sides (or however many sides there are) overreacted and then get on with the game.

We could cry ourselves hoarse saying that England, Australia or whoever are being racist, or that Jagmohan Dalmiya is playing the race card cynically. Who knows, either could be true, both could be untrue, or both could be true. But is it the issue of guilt that the debate should centre on? Or should it focus on the flaw in the nature of ICC's authority? Surely the latter is the correct option.

A lasting solution to this does not lie in punishing anyone, it simply lies in admitting that certain things in the way ICC is constituted and run are imperfect and require revision. The members must then renew commitment to a central authority - on altered terms if necessary - which takes care not just of the majority but all of ICC's members. The solution lies in unanimity, not in the tyranny of a majority. There is no shame in accepting the need for such changes.

It is also important that administrators never lose sight of the dignity of the cricketers concerned when settling upon solutions to problems. Maybe, just maybe, the time has come to de-emphasize the gladiatorial nature of the contests, where the players are just pushed into the field and told: "Go forth and be role models and still fight hard, harder than animals, and retain your sanity under the worst of pressure." Now that's probably asking for too much.

Here is where an international organisation of cricket players would help tremendously. It would de-emphasize their racial and national affiliations, and instead would create a forum where the representatives could take up a grievance with ICC in private if the players' body thought fit to do so. This would take the issue out of national parliamentary debates where completely ignorant politicians deliver sermons on racism in cricket, and it would also deter hawkish national cricket boards from hijacking the issue of individual players' indignity and turning it into a power battle of the majority against the obvious minority.

Dwijottam Bhattacharjee lives in Mumbai, India.

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