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There aren’t too many cricketing things that give my morning walk partner Bobby more pleasure than a West Indies victory. At the top of the list is an India defeat, especially since Jay Shah became the ICC board chairman.
So, it’s easy to understand why he has emphatically not been in his element so far this week.
On Wednesday, he was far grumpier than he was on Monday, feeling that once again the ICC had “shown its true colours”.
Photo: Getty Images.
He was not alone. South Africa’s David Miller and Quinton de Kock complained on social media. And Daren Sammy retweeted a Miller complaint, asking him to ‘talk a lil louder for those in the back to hear, please, sir’.
There was also a Michael Vaughan post talking about unfair treatment. ‘Just because you are more powerful at the ICC table shouldn’t count,’ he wrote. Vaughan is from England, mind you, one of the Big Three who run the ICC show.
“Big Three my foot!” Bobby sneered at me when I pointed it out. “Is really Big One now!”
India prime minister Narendra Modi was a guest at Jay’s wedding in 2015.
At the start of our walk on Monday, I goaded him: “Record-breaking stuff, bro. Best team in the world. Records, records everywhere and all the boards did shrink…”
“I know about the record-breaking,” he responded, making his displeasure manifest, “but shrinking boards more important.”
Suryakumar Yadav’s side had duly retained the T20 World Cup title, becoming the first team to do so, the first team to win the title at home and the first to notch three liens on the title.
A massive 86,000-plus crowd at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad watched them coast to a commanding 96-run victory over an underwhelming New Zealand—first win over the Black Caps in four T20 World Cup attempts and their biggest win by runs in the tournament’s history.
Photo: Getty Images.
“Maybe India were the best team in the tournament, eh,” he continued. “But the confusion between BCCI and ICC continues. Would India have won without a little help from their ICC friends and the silence of the listless lambs?”
For me, the Samuel Taylor Coleridge line was not intended to be a reference to cricket boards. It was just a handy way to highlight the many outstanding performances by members of the winning team in the 10th edition of the tournament.
Unsurprisingly, Indian names were at or near the top of many of the lists; and not just because they—and, of course, New Zealand—played nine matches.
Photo: Getty Images.
The team’s 255 for 5 came on the back of their 253 for 7 in the semifinal against England, the first time any team had crossed 250 in consecutive matches.
Man-of-the-Match Jasprit Bumrah claimed 4/15 to take his tally of wickets in the tournament to 14, joint top of the table with teammate Varun Chakaravarthy. And his 6.21 economy rate was also the tournament’s lowest.
Player-of-the-Tournament Sanju Samson, whose 321 aggregate included a 97* against West Indies, scored his third successive half-century to earn himself third place on the Most Runs table.
Photo: Getty Images.
His 24 sixes left Finn Allen’s 20 and Shimron Hetmyer’s 19 in his wake, while his 199.38 strike rate was second only to Allen’s 200. The New Zealander’s 298 put him in fourth spot behind his teammate Tim Seifert (326) and India’s Ishan Kishan (317).
Four more Indians were listed in the top 20—no other New Zealander made it.
Four India players, we would later learn, were in the ICC 2026 World Cup Team, captained by South Africa’s Aiden Markram. One West Indian made the cut: Jason Holder.
Photo: Getty Images.
Holder, Hetmyer, Shai Hope and Sherfane Rutherford featured in the batting lists and Holder, Romario Shepherd and Gudakesh Motie in the bowling. Matthew Forde should also have been high up on the Economy Rate list but I could not confirm that he was.
“Not sure ‘bout Forde and Motie but all de rest ah dem IPL contract safe,” he said, grinning broadly. “Not sure if dem safe in India!”
“I think they came home last night,” I responded, “or, at least, they finally left India.”
Photo: CWI Media.
“No, breds, they’re still in Kolkata,” he corrected me. “Who knows if they will get out before the IPL starts, which is on the 28th?”
Me: “Really?”
Bobby: “Their flight arrangements get cancelled again last night. But England fly home already. They played Thursday and get a charter home Saturday morning. WI and South Africa get knocked out before them and they still in Kolkata waiting for the ICC to successfully arrange a charter for them.”
Me: “Ah! I saw a headline saying ICC refutes bias claims. I didn’t read the story but I will when I get back home. But I know you know I don’t think everybody gets a fair shake from the ICC.
“There are 12 full members and about 90 associates in the ICC. You know what percentage of the 2024-2027 revenue the BCCI will collect?”
Bobby: “You told me. They get almost 40 percent.”
Me: “Correct. 38.5% to be precise. But the ICC currently boasts 12 full members and about 90 associates. How is that fair?”
Bobby: “It isn’t—even if India generates a large percentage of the revenue! It just not right for India always to be playing with house money.”
By Wednesday morning, we had confirmation. An ICC spokesperson poured cold water over any claims of bias.
Any suggestion that teams have been prioritized based on anything other than these constraints is incorrect,” (s)he said.
The constraints? Airspace availability, the story said, aircraft routing permissions, visa requirements and operational safety considerations.
However, the arrangements for a Tuesday evening charter for the West Indies and South Africa teams had again broken down…
A CWI statement claimed the Board: had advised the ICC that it was no longer prudent to continue waiting on the charter arrangements.
Multiple approaches, it continued, have been made (…), in coordination with the ICC, to secure commercial travel to facilitate the squad’s safe return.
And the ICC was reported to have individually booked all the players on commercial flights.
Bobby: “It’s also not fair for the ICC to one year give India permission not to go to Pakistan and the next year refuse Bangladesh permission not to play in India? I mean, they might as well just organize the friggin fixtures to decide who playing India in the final!
“It friggin blatant. It ridiculous!”
Photo: Getty Images.
Me: “It clearly not fair.”
Bobby: “But Pakistan didn’t protest the Bangladesh decision, did they?”
Me: “They did. The PCB did. They cited ‘double standards’ and said they were prepared to boycott their own match against India. I read somewhere that the Bangladeshis persuaded them not to.
“But here’s the real issue: if Pakistan hadn’t refused to play in India, India would probably have ended up playing all nine of their games at home.”
Bobby: “And who going to stop them? England and Australia? Ha! I just glad it ent have no more World Cups scheduled for India for at least four years. We don’t need to worry.
“I can’t wait for (CWI president Kishore) Shallow to go he way so we boy (Azim Bassarath) could take over the reins.
(Chuckling) “You think if he was in charge Akeal (Hosein) and Jayden (Seales) wouldn’t be home by now—even if he had to use TTCB money to charter a plane fuh them?”
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Columns that say that, after Covid has done its worst, we’re grateful
to be still here and be able to get out of bed early to heed the poet’s
Carpe diem injunction and, savouring all the day’s blessings, mine
those banal, random, ordinary, routine, unspectacular, run-of-the-mill,
early-morning thoughts and conversations we often engage in.
