Why they loathe cricket's big boss?

The ICC being the nucleus of every form of international cricket is bound to be engulfed in controversial issues time and again. There is no escape and no shortage of people who are ever-ready to point an accusing finger. Over the years, the ICC has been at times successful and at other times rather unsuccessful in wading away these allegations.

Bias against subcontinent teams

The ugliest point of contention that the subcontinent teams have with the ICC is that the ICC is often perceived to be bias against them. There have been a number of incidents to substantiate this claim.

Australian umpire Darrell Hair declared Pakistan guilty of ball tampering without a fair trial in the Oval in August 2006. If Hair’s decision could stem out of prejudice then so could the accusations of him being biased. But the evidence was stacked against the Aussie in the case.

He inspected the ball along with fellow umpire Billy Doctrove and announced the penalty. Out of 26 Sky cameras installed at Oval none picked any tampering. Pakistan captain wasn’t asked to explain, no warning was issued to Inzamam. He was not shown the original ball that was allegedly tampered with. According to the Pakistan skipper, he was just handed down the sentence.

In a recent incident in West Indies involving Brian Lara and M S Dhoni, Lara snatched the ball out of umpire Asad Rauf’s hands when Dhoni refused to walk.

Despite this unruly behaviour which was truly uncalled for, Lara got away scot-free with the ICC GM-Cricket Dave Richardson defending Lara by saying that “Lara just showed a little frustration but it was borne out of circumstances. He certainly did not show dissent”.

However, Virender Sehwag was fined 20% of his match-fee because he celebrated a dismissal of the opposition without conferring with the umpire. This apparently showed more dissent than Lara showing blatant disrespect to the umpire and the other players.

Another incident involving the Indians which stood out blaringly was the ban on six Indian players by match-referee Mike Denness on a tour to South Africa in 2001. Here, a ban was imposed on Sachin Tendulkar who was accused of ball-tampering on the basis of TV evidence.


Along with this Virender Sehwag and three other players were banned for over appealing. In addition, Sourav Ganguly was also found guilty for being unable to control his players. All these incidents finally led India and South Africa to play an unofficial Test against the approval of the ICC.

Another victim of bias has been Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan, who was subjected to the ignominy of being dubbed a chucker. This time the ‘villain’ was an Australian umpire called Darrell Hair. It is to his credit that Murali, who enjoyed the solid support of his team mates, continues to annihilate the biggies of cricket with his magical spin bowling.

Match fixing scandal

Match-fixing scandals are one of the worst developments that the ICC has faced with since its inception. A major incident involving Mark Waugh and Shane Warne receiving money from bookmakers for information about the weather and the pitch during a tour of Sri Lanka came to the forefront in 1994. Australia and ICC swept it under the carpet. In a report that summed up the incident, it was stated that the two players were not aware of the dangers of letting out this vital piece of information to bookmakers, and no punishment could be awarded under these circumstances.

In another incident, late South African captain Hansie Cronje and three of his team-mates Herschelle Gibbs, Pieter Strydom and Nicky Boje were accused of accepting bribe by an Indian bookmaker for match fixing. Cronje`s resolve to maintain his innocence collapsed. In the middle of the night, on 11 April 2000, just before a one-dayer against Australia in Durban, he tearfully confessed to a team security officer in the hotel before ringing the UCBSA chief Dr Ali Bacher, who instantly stripped him of the captaincy. This was one of cricket’s most serious claims of corruption in its history.

Former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin was also found guilty of match-fixing and three others - Ajay Jadeja, Manoj Prabhakar and Ajay Sharma - had links with bookmakers. Azharuddin and Ajay Sharma have received life bans, while Ajay Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar had been suspended from the game for five years.

In Pakistan, Salim Malik and Ata-ur-Rehman were also banned for life for match-fixing after Justice Qayyum found them guilty in 2000.

Doping scandal

Doping by sportspersons world-over has been frighteningly common. But when the sports personality in question is of the stature of Shane Warne then it becomes more than a mistake, more than a mere crime. Shane Warne found guilty by the ICC before the onset of 2003 World Cup on consuming a diuretic was handed over a ban of 12 months. The objectionable substances which were consumed were hydrochlorothiazide and amiloride.

In an announcement that rocked the Champions Trophy tournament in 2006, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) stated that fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif had failed an out of competition drugs test. It was revealed the substance found was nandrolone, an anabolic steroid that releases muscle mass.

However, even after they were initially banned from playing international cricket, the PCB later overturned the bans and acquitted the two cricketers.

In cricket, anti-doping rules are still a new thing and countries have no central contract with the ICC regarding this. The PCB has its own rules, the ICC has its own and since the tests were carried out by the PCB, the explanation of “exceptional circumstances” was applied. This led to a lot of criticism by the cricketing fraternity world over.

ICC and politics

The ICC has been involved in a lot of controversy regarding cricket in Zimbabwe. In 2003 World Cup, two noted players Andy Flower and Henry Olonga wore black armbands on the field to protest against the ‘death of democracy’ in Zimbabwe.

The following year captain Heath Streak was allegedly dismissed which led to an outcry in Zimbabwe with 14 other white players filing petitions to reinstate Streak. This was ignored by the Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) who went on to include fresh faces in the team consisting of young and inexperienced players.

The result was that the Zimbabwean side lost badly. This led to the ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed rushing to Zimbabwe to discuss the situation with ZC. However, the ZC officials refused to see him. There were calls from the cricketing fraternity to strip Zimbabwe off its Test status till the situation improved to avoid further shame.

Eventually, ICC banned Zimbabwe from playing Test cricket in 2004.

Anti-corruption and security unit

Like every governing body, the ICC too realized the importance of a body that dealt with corruption and security. Keeping in mind the rising misdemeanours in the game of cricket a body called Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) was set up in 2000. This body was led by retired Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police, Lord Condon.

Several cases of match-fixing have been taken up by the ACSU. The unit has also stipulated various rules such as banning the use of mobile phones in dressing rooms to lessen corruption in cricket.