Cozier on Cricket: Swift ICC action credit to game

THE International Cricket Council (ICC), and two of its member boards, have dealt with two intricate and unexpected problems this past week with a boldness and conviction not normally associated with those who administer the game.

The first was their resistance to the belated, unwarranted and illogical coercion of the British and Australian governments to switch the six matches scheduled for Zimbabwe to South Africa in next month's World Cup.

The second, their swift and strong response to an Australian player's racial expletive during a match against Sri Lanka in the triangular series in Australia.

In both instances, the relevant governing bodies have recognised and restated the positive potential of cricket - and sport in general - in a world so repeatedly buffeted by political, racial and religious differences and intolerance.

The two objecting governments vehemently argued that the World Cup matches would give succour and credence to the regime of President Robert Mugabe which, by all reliable reports, has systematically destroyed a once prosperous country, subjected its people to near starvation and blatantly annihilated scores of its opponents.

The matches, of course, would do nothing of the sort. Quite the opposite.

As John Simpson, the celebrated BBC international reporter, observed: "If the world's cricketers were to boycott the Zimbabwe matches, they would merely lower the morale of a proportion of those Zimbabweans who are already suffering; it won't mean a thing to Robert Mugabe."

Cricket is very much a minority sport in Zimbabwe.

It was originally played almost exclusively by the now persecuted and dwindling white population, which still fields most of the national team. But fervent, if belated, efforts to carry it to all the people have been largely successful even though it is still struggling for survival.

I know from covering the West Indies tour there a year and a half ago that, in spite of, or, perhaps because of, everything else, the efforts of black and white Zimbabweans, pulling together in a common cause on the cricket field, have been an inspiration to those who follow the game.

The talented black fast bowler, Henry Olonga, composed and sang what became a popular anthem at the time along those lines.

The World Cup comes as an enormous boost to the game and those increasingly attracted to it. To have abandoned it would have been to abandon Zimbabwean cricket.

While the British government pressed the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to boycott Zimbabwe, it put no such demand on the many British interests that remain in the country.

It did not seek to withdraw British Airways' regular flights into Harare. It did nothing to dissuade more than 300 British companies from trading there. It did not consider closing its high commission in protest against Mugabe's excesses, as Denmark has done.

Cricket was an easy option and was targeted. It was yet another example of political hypocrisy and the ICC and the ECB were astute enough to see it for what it was and to reject it.

No sooner had the ECB announced that it was standing firm by its decision to play its match in Zimbabwe - as, indeed, it had done in a five-match series just 15 months earlier without a squeak from the government - the ICC found itself having to deal with its first case of racial abuse.

It came from the Australian batsman, Darren Lehmann, as he returned to the team room after his dismissal against Sri Lanka in Brisbane last Thursday.

He reportedly blurted out: "black . . . .", so loudly it was overheard in their dressing rooms by the Sri Lankans who lodged a complaint with match referee, Clive Lloyd, the former West Indies captain.

The ICC's code of discipline is explicit on the issue. It forbids "using language or gestures that offend, insult, humiliate, intimidate, threaten, disparage or vilify another person on the basis of that person's race, religion, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin".

It did not leave Lloyd much leeway for leniency, not should it have. As it was, he did not impose the maximum penalty of up to four Tests or eight One-Day Internationals.

He considered Lehmann's "impeccable record and other matters put to me about his standing and reputation in cricket" and suspended him for five One-Day Internationals.

Even that might appear hefty punishment for a curt, if offensive, exclamation from a dejected batsman in the heat of the moment in what he thought to be sanctuary of his own dressing room. But the message it sends is more significant than the measure itself.

Cricket has a long established reputation for fair play to uphold.

Developed under British imperialism, it has overcome a history based on political and racial inequality to embrace and unite almost every ethnic, social and religious background known to mankind.

West Indians, more than anyone else, have come to appreciate its value in that regard and fear the danger of creeping racism, in whatever its guise.

Nowhere else has the game had a more profound and positive influence on our diverse people than in the West Indies.

The observation of Herman Griffith, the legendary fast bowler of the first half of the 20th Century, that the two races in Barbados would have eaten each other but for cricket is not regarded as hyperbole by those who lived through his times.

The ICC has moved smartly to ensure that today's players understand their responsibility in upholding cricket's values, just as it did in rebutting the efforts of opportunistic politicians to use it for their own ends.

* Tony Cozier is the leading cricket writer and broadcaster in the Caribbean.