First it was match fixing that was the epicentre of all troubles that was brewing in the Pakistani cricket establishment. Now, it has been ball tampering that Shoaib Akhtar was charged with yesterday. The kind of revelations that have come up in the last few weeks have obviously begged the question that why is Pakistan still being allowed to play international cricket? Why has not the English tour of Pakistan been called off after the Test series?
There have been quite a few former cricketers who have voiced their opinions about this. They have expressed that ICC should exhibit restraint and should not ban Pakistan from the list of ICC Test playing nations. Well, my point is if ICC can ban the South African and Zimbabwe cricket teams for purely political reasons, and for reasons for which the poor cricketers are not to blame, then why cannot they do so for Pakistan, whose cricketers are directly involved in all wrong-doings?
When South Africa was banned for Apartheid, or Zimbabwe was suspended for violation of Human Rights by their political leadership, everybody accepted those decisions. The match fixing saga and the ball tampering controversy is even worse, as the cricketers themselves are involved in selling the reputation of their country. To teach all cricketers a strong lesson, ICC should go ahead and disallow Pakistan from participating in any of its affiliated tournaments for the next one year at least, including the coveted World Cup that is scheduled next February.
The million dollar question is does ICC have the fire in its belly to take such a drastic step when there are only 8 proper Test playing nations right now? Do they dare to ban a cricket playing nation at a time when the associate nations have failed to rise to Test match level after sustained investments? An even bigger question is whether they would do it at the cost of World Cup 2011 TRPs crashing down.
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