Bloated egos threatening to take over cricket

Chris Gayle and the West Indies board are locked in battle with neither side willing to back down. Simon Katich has slammed Cricket Australia for dropping him, while the BCCI are adamant that the DRS will never be used in any series that requires them to accept it. The problem, writes Makarand Waingankar in the Hindu, is that the game is being overtaken by big egos that are more concerned with their own interests than the larger picture.

And when John Hampshire, the first Englishman to score a century on debut at Lord's in 1969 against the mighty West Indians was dropped after the next match, he preferred to accept the decision of the selectors rather than call for a big press conference like Katich did by blasting all and sundry.

A glance through the records of Wisden and there are dozens of cases of players who had genuine reasons for hitting back at the selectors but unlike Katich none of them did.