Tuesday, July 19, 2011

ICC fan's Greatest Test team of all time- Fair enough?

There is no denying of the fact that the International Cricket Council (ICC) has been under an immense influence of Indian Lobby i.e the BCCI for a while now. The policy matters of ICC must have a strong backing by the Indian Cricket board in order to be implemented. This influence of Indian board was seen to have another dimension which had nothing to do with board itself, but with the public of India. 

In a recently concluded fan's Greatest test team of all-time on the website of ICC, the strong Indian lobby along with the advantage of gigantic population with proportional internet users, made 4 Indian cricketers join the elite test team of all-time, just before the occasion of 2000th International test match at Lords- The home of cricket. Had it been not for the public pole, most of the players would never have made it into this list. Nothing to be taken away from all the 11 great players but it would have been better if instead of a public pole, an independent ICC jury was to announce the all-time Greatest team. 2000 Test matches spanning from 1877 till now is not a minor thing, after all. 

Virender Sehwag, a big name, a devastating opener, but with due respect, is not a proper test match opener. Kapil Dev, a fine all-rounder, better than Sir Garfield Sobers or Sir Richard Hadlee? Muttiah Muralitharan, first man to have achieved a mammoth haul of 800 wickets in test matches didn't even make it to the list. Just because there was not enough Sri Lankan population to take part in the online competition? No Michael Holdings or Any Roberts or Malcom Marshalls or Joel Garners or Sir Vivian Richards or Imran Khans or Denis Comptons or several other players, who were the true representatives of Test cricket, are to be find in this public list, which was dominated by voters primarily from Indian T20 generation.

ICC should have been fair while announcing the All-time Greatest team for the Test matches at least as it is the real form of Cricket and therefore, must be dealt with care in all cases. Public votes, however, can be used in case of One day Cricket. Even if the fan's Greatest team is announced, ICC should take care of the location of the audiences so that a fair and a non-biased outcome is achieved. 

Disappointed at this unfair result. 

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