The Surfer

Cricket's showpiece just a sham

Writing in The New Zealand Herald , Chris Rattue rues the ICC's decision to continue with the World Cup in the aftermath of Bob Woolmer's death.

Writing in The New Zealand Herald, Chris Rattue rues the ICC's decision to continue with the World Cup in the aftermath of Bob Woolmer's death.

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Cricket remains in a dark cell; its showpiece a sham, feels Rattue. Sport, in the end, is supposed to be enjoyable, yet its top table invariably involves a distasteful feast.

The ICC chose to continue with this tournament in the aftermath of Woolmer's demise.To have scrapped the tournament, to have so publicly succumbed to the evils that permeate their game, would have been a disaster to their minds.

A close and difficult call, but it has given the good people of cricket, in other words the majority, a deserved chance to bring their planning to fruition. It should, unfortunately, be their last chance, although who would bet on a sport having the gumption to fully admit to its problems by scrapping this gigantic sham.

Where did world tournaments go wrong? Because they surely have.

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ICC World Cup

Jamie Alter is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo