Twenty Questions about cricket


By Anil - Dec 30, 2002
December 30 2002

Cricket is a complex game. As the year draws to a close, and the World Cup of cricket approaches, twenty honest questions from the naive cricket fan surface.

  1. Why does umpire Darell Hair of Australia repeatedly no-ball a spinner (Murali) but ignore a fast bowler (Brett Lee) on the issue of chucking - even though a fast bowler has much more to gain from chucking?

  2. Why does Steve Waugh say "words are cheap" whenever opposition players talk to the media, even though he and members of his team keep talking to the media?

  3. How come Nasser Hussain doesn't occupy the batsman's crease to set his fielding positions when Steve Waugh comes in to bat, as he regularly does whenever Sourav Ganguly comes to bat?

  4. Why doesn't the England media come down heavily on their tormenter Brett Lee who is a confirmed chucker, even though they went after much-less-known Lankan bowler Ruchira Perera with an incredible vengeance?

  5. Why is it that New Zealand cricket experts disagree with Sourav Ganguly when he criticizes their pitches, even though they go on to agree that the pitches were poor?

  6. Why are Asoka de Silva and Russell Tiffin allowed to umpire international games when they apparently don't understand the basics of cricket?

  7. Why does Justin Langer criticize batsmen for not walking even though he never walks himself? Why does Langer criticize audience members for taunting a chucker when he has nothing to say about whole stadiums of Australian crowds, and ex-umpires, taunting the best bowler in Test cricket?

  8. Why did the Aussie fielders and bowlers not get a single penalty for repeated umpire-charging and intimidation in the 4th test, when other teams have got harsh punishments and bans for much less?

  9. How come Andrew Caddick wasn't so much as fined, for giving the finger to an audience and mouthing obscenities at them even though it was caught on TV, but Akhtar was banned a match and fined the maximum, for doing much the same recently in Zimbabwe even though it was not caught on TV?

  10. How come the same two countries that have criticized India for boycotting cricket with Pak (because of serious matters of national security) are calling for boycotting cricket with Zimbabwe (because of politics that have no effect on their country)?

  11. How does Australian PM Howard aggressively attack Zimbabwe for trying to uproot some farmers, when his own country has been guilty of much worse in uprooting the native Aboriginals of Australia?

  12. How can the Malcoms of ICC take $400 million from cricket sponsors of a country and then bad-mouth cricket authorities and cricketers from the same country?

  13. How can the Malcoms try to sabotage pre-existing endorsement deals of Indian cricketers, and then openly criticize the BCCI, players, and everybody but themselves?

  14. Why is the most boring and untalented team in the world, South Africa, rated so high?

  15. Why do media like Wisden and Cricinfo pretend to be neutral record keepers of the game even though their coverage is unfailingly hostile to the cricket playing countries of the Indian subcontinent?

  16. How come India's by far worst-ever tour of New Zealand has come under a New Zealand coach?

  17. Why does the ICC insist that a win against Bangladesh counts for the same number of ratings points as a win against Australia?

  18. Why does the BCCI announce squads for the World Cup even though none of the players are going to sign the ICC contracts?

  19. Why do Indian sponsors want to pay the Malcoms $400 million, instead of paying the Indian cricketers directly?

  20. Anyway, why do sponsors want to pay so much money for sponsorship rights based on a team that has been winning no matches lately?