All cricket boards are inherently political organisations, but the BCCI are more and more resembling the American ‘tea party’. They have decided on their ideology and if any pesky facts happen to try to contradict the ideology then the problem is with the facts, not the ideology. The most recent instance of this is, yet again, their opposition to technology. Hot Spot will not be used in the India v England ODI series after the owner got sick of dealing with the BCCI and shipped some of the cameras to America for use in the World Series. My favourite quote from Warren Brennan, the owner of Hot Spot: ‘Almost all of the time I speak to the Indian cricket board, it’s really all about power for them, and them owning the game, because they believe they have a virtual birthright to control the game, because they bring in such a high percentage of the revenue into the sport’. Which is pretty much what I’ve suspected for a while now.
Especially as today I woke up (at a quarter to four in the morning) to hear that the BCCI had barred their host broadcaster from even showing HawkEye. Because, of course, if a decision goes against the Indians it wouldn’t suit the official line for anyone to know that it was correct. Just imagine the chaos if an Indian batsman were to be correctly given out! I am reminded of watching The Chuck Fleetwood Smiths after the Tendulkar was lbw on the last day of the last test and Indian fans simply refusing to accept that it was actually out. Their commentators have free reign to declare that a given appeal was clearly out or not out and there is no conflicting evidence. They say the Indian fans view cricket as a religion. It certainly seems to share the worst aspects thereof.
And my heart goes out to those in the UK who are forced to watch the BCCI’s propaganda station on Sky right now. I feel your pain, as the same thing happened on my feed during the first two tests of the summer series.
Defensive Indifference 