This is not cricket

When Wasim and Waqar made the ball talk, it was a mystery. The English press went berserk and I do remember some of the stuff said, by professional cricketers. Right there on Test Match Special. It was biased, it was baseless  and if you ask me it was a bit of colonialism. They even wanted to test the ball in a laboratory.

This was 1992 and Pakistan had just won the World Cup and then beaten England, at both Lords and Oval, in the test series. From the comments and commentary, the feeling of ‘We are the real cricketers and you upstarts are cheating’ used to come dripping through in the words and the tone. It was the same a decade before this, in the 1982 series, when Pakistan won at Lords and Imran and Mudassar (of all people) did the job. The ball swung, tongues wagged and one felt criminalised without actually having done anything.  

To date, I am convinced that the court case against Imran, which finally revealed so called reverse swing techniques, was a deliberate ploy to reveal the arts. This was another form of cheating if you ask me. Of course this toxicity continued and much was always made of Pakistan and ball tampering. Culminating in that awful afternoon at the Oval in 2006. A storm of no reality. We all forget, there was no ball tampering at all. Inzamam-ul-Haq and Pakistan were cleared. Yet we were named, shamed and forfeited a test match. 

So, to remind our old masters in Lords, the three biggest controversies of ball tampering are all THEM. Atherton in 1994, caught red handed on TV. Du Plessis caught in Australia in 2016. And now Steve Smith and Bancroft. This last one, which happened yesterday leaves one with a bad taste. It was collusion, involving captain and team members. A conspiracy of cheating and really has now besmirched the good game. You will never be able to trust cricket again. 

  

What is done in the next few days will identify the future of cricket. It is no less than that. Can we stop this becoming Wrestling and its drama laden facade, WWE. Or will it remain the majestic game, with its traditions and complexities that we have known. Personally and sadly, I feel we will see a continued decline in the value system and the whole game will be trivialised. More IPLs, PSLs, Big Bashes. More drama and less substance.  This then reflects on the system and the players, who are also a product of the system. So then you should expect these events to happen. Where winning means everything, fame and money mean everything, and short cuts are accepted, then expect more ball tampering and cheating also.