Aug 10, 2011
The state of world cricket is a constant subject of debate. This is especially as the power base shifts from the traditional English enclave at Lord's where the old countries, England, Australia and South Africa, although its influence was decreased during the apartheid era, held sway to the financially-dominant Indian sub-continent.
The ICC may have moved from Lord's to Dubai but that geographic shift was only part of the seismic move in the world game – a move that has best been demonstrated by the emergence of IPL and the way it has been accommodated so swiftly, yet without regard to traditional cricket demands. The fees involved are more important to the players, as West Indian captain Chris Gayle demonstrated, and as New Zealanders showed ahead of their last tour of England when they joined the tour late.
While getting inside this change is not always easy, unless some scandal erupts which puts emphasis on one aspect of the relationship between India and the rest, former ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed witnessed it at first hand and has recounted his experiences in a fascinating book 'Sticky Wicket'.
If able to get your hands on it, it is well worth a read.
Speed felt that India's influence was not a negative – all could benefit from the sale of television rights to the insatiable Indian market.
He commented: "I think it is a great advantage for cricket...India's revenues are sustainable if the game is well governed in India by honest men of wisdom, ability, enthusiasm and sound judgement. Therein lies the threat, the potential weakness and the challenge that faces the game in the sub-continent."
Speed had his own concerns when accepting the job, incidentally it was a job he first thought should go to the chief executive of New Zealand Cricket, Christopher Doig.
He said he believed the key indicators in a sporting organisation were 'respect, influence and an appropriate level of control', and as he considered the ICC role, he asked if he would have the support of all members, including India, to achieve this?
But Speed said he never achieved the qualities he desired in the organisation once Jagmohan Dalmiya became president of India's board of control (BCCI). He outlines many of the problems they experienced during his leadership term, and beyond, when Dalmiya's successors were his nominees for the role.
Speed said that he was far from confident that those who bore office for the BCCI had the ICC's best interests at heart. His relationship with India is described by Speed in full, and is too lengthy to repeat here but he did feel the description of him in one Indian newspaper as one of the 'least-liked men in India' wasn't a bad effort.
The fact that Speed was in the last months of his role as chief executive during the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies, also provides much substance in his book. Undoubtedly the death of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer was the big news event of the tournament, and Speed's backgrounding of the episode is enlightening, right down to the fact that the pathologist who made the comments which led to the suspicion of Woolmer having been murdered, had no formal pathology qualifications and his only medical qualifications were achieved after three years study at a university in southern (it's almost predictable) India.
He wrongly diagnosed that the hyoid bone in Woolmer's neck was broken – it wasn't. And a panel of pathologists who reviewed the case found that the blood which resulted in the pathologist believing that Woolmer had been strangled was caused by the pathologist's faulty dissection of Woolmer's body.
All of which occurred during the media circus which was created by the deputy commissioner of the Jamaican Constabulary Force, Mark Shields. Speed was unimpressed with the efforts of the publicity-seeking Shields.
Speed's own view, after an open verdict was delivered in the coroner's inquest, was that Woolmer died of natural causes. His heart was dangerously enlarged, he had suffered several heart attacks and he was overweight and a diabetic.
We could go on, but this is only a review/comment, not another book.
In terms of many aspects of world cricket during the 10 years in which Speed was involved, his side of the story in several major incidents including the 'monkeygate' scandal involving India and Australia in 2008 and the August 2006 incident in which umpire Darrell Hair accused Pakistan of ball tampering during a Test in England, makes his book a key document in understanding what happened during one of the more turbulent eras of the great game.
His book makes clear the difficulties facing administrators of the game and provides a better understanding of the controversies that are so commonplace nowadays.
Sticky Wicket is a must for anyone with the interests of cricket at heart.
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