Giles Clarke - Democracy is Dead

As the sweeping changes to the governance of world cricket are approved and start to roll out, the ICC seem keen to assert that No member will be worse of than they are at present as a justification for all the changes. In other words the richest nations can expect to be come disproportionately richer than the poorer ones. Sorry do I sound a little sceptical, or is it as ICC Preseident Alan Issac stated "the board made changes to the long term certainty of the financial models of the ICC"


As the dust begins to settle on the fact that 2 of the 8 full members abstained from voting it has been interesting to read the comments of Giles Clarke Chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board. In an article in todays Sunday Times in which he tries to defend the KP saga, although officially this decision was actually taken by Paul Downton and Alastair Cook, Clarke talks about taking unpopular decisions.
In a PR exercise worthy of those undertaken by the Royal Family's press machine (and we all know my thorts' on that) Clarke actually says " The ICC has 105 members of whom 10 have voting rights, it's not a democracy and doesn't aspire to be"


Now I am not going to suggest that the ICC is run alongside the lines of North Korea and it's democratically elected leader Kim Jong Un who has such a wonderful relationship with all his relatives, but his comments and his power grabbing colleagues seem to me to be so far removed from the true feelings of the real fans. Although any protests that took place recently were ignored by both the majority of the media and the ICC.


Clarke claims that huge numbers (meaning true cricket fans) have not actually understood the decisions taken that benefit so few countries, ooops sorry, world cricket. Well perhaps Mr Clarke you should be open and transparent in the discussions you undertook ahead of the ICC meeting and try to understand why Pakistan and Sri Lanka abstained from voting.


Every organisation can change over time but Giles Clarke's faith in  future ICC broadcasting rights as the answer to all problems is a dangerous step, just like getting rid of KP. I worry that the ECB may well spend their future income in advance, rather like those football teams in the English Premier League and then when results go against them and fans stop turning up rely on the pound or dollar to sustain themselves.


Financially cricket should be in a very healthy position, the various T20 competitions around the world have injected interest in the game whilst the Ashes series (although a disaster for this writer) proved how a nation can get behind the test team.


In the ICC we have to trust, Don't We?


any comments welcome on twitter to @NotSubject


thanks


Terry

Flower Power

It seems such a shame that a proud and talented man who was able to stand up against the injustice of Robert Mugabe's regime and who took England to the number one spot in world cricket, will end his coaching role with the national side and all that has been built previously, falling apart so badly during this Ashes series. Many coaches in different sports have found it very difficult to keep a team at the top once they have got there.


You could argue that his standing in the England set up started to go downhill when he gave up half of his job to another coach. Relentless schedules, work-life balance and a young family were all cited as reasons behind his decision. As admirable as this may have been it has meant that he was absent from the squad for long periods of time.
Andrew Strauss suggested in his article today that Flower "cared about the players and cared about the support staff". This maybe true but it becomes difficult to be that paternal figure when you are not around 100% of the time. Perhaps 5 years in charge of a national side is as much as any coach can be expected to devote, do coaches have a limited shelf life?


The elephant in the room has obviously been KP despite any attempts by the ECB to suggest otherwise. We often read how Flower was very protective of the team (that's TEAM) environment, but it appears KP would throw a spanner in the works from time to time oblivious to what effect it has. "Textgate" is just one example, and lets not forget that when KP was captain he wanted Flower sacked along with Peter Moores.


I wish Andy Flower all the best in whatever role he will take with ECB and from listening to both current & ex players he is too talented to drift away into a minor role.


Whoever does take the role on they need to decide who will be the core of the team now the break up has begun, they must install Cook with belief to be his own man on the pitch and remove what appears to be a general state of defeatism in the changing room. Good luck to that man.


Thanks for reading and I welcome any comments or thorts' via Twitter @Notsubject


Terry