Big chickens out of control

It was Storming Norman Schwarzkopf, military leader of the allied forces in the Gulf War, who best defined commitment. If you think of a full English breakfast, he said, a chicken is involved but a pig is committed. In that sense, the ruling body of any sport needs its members to be pigs, especially when it is undergoing change. The ICC's problem is that countries operate in chicken-mode too often, and Asia's big two are the chief cluckers.

This week's dumbfounding storm over Sachin's finger-work - and the recent stand-off over Shoaib Akhtar - might lead you to think that India and Pakistan had never attended an ICC meeting. Or that they had no role in establishing the processes by which the game is governed and decisions are made. You might think that India and Pakistan did not have representatives on the ICC's technical committees. Or that a prominent Indian like Sunil Gavaskar had nothing to do with the rules and regulations of our modern game. If you think all of these things you are wrong.

This is where commitment matters. It is no use being part of decision-making if you behave as if you were a mere bystander when the rules punish you. Sachin might well have been hard done by but that does not give the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) the right to blackmail the South African authorities into dropping Mike Denness. He might have got it wrong but there have been far bigger mistakes with far worse consequences committed within the Indian democracy. Shoaib Akhtar might well be the victim of official ignorance but that does not mean that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) should refuse to cooperate with Michael Holding, the ICC advisor assigned to clear up the matter. The PCB might be rightly aggrieved but they have to live with the process just as their English counterparts had to live with the shambles over James Kirtley.

Asia's giant chickens clearly want special dispensation: milk the system when the pickings are rich, but junk it as soon as it turns against them. And that is not to say that the fight for Sachin's reputation or Shoaib's career is not worth fighting. Of course these are just causes but you do not fight them with the kind of bullying tactics that the BCCI has begun to employ at every turn. This simply betrays an inability to influence the highest decision-makers through reason and logic.

India's pulling power has made it a law unto itself. Since Jagmohan Dalmiya won the presidency, his organisation has threatened to pull out of next year's tour to England, demanded that the tour be curtailed, and now bullied the South Africans into a confrontation with the ICC. Much of the fault does lie with the ICC and its inability to turn chickens into pigs, but the Asian boards are abusing the system.

You wondered what the future could possibly hold for Dalmiya after his spell as the top administrator in international cricket. Now it is clear: his whims and fancies - and those of his organisation - have become bigger than the game itself.