Why did Cameron refuse to go to India?
Mon, Feb 23, '15
Was it a lack of foresight – an inability, as it were, to see the forest from the trees – or was it simply the arrogance of a leader corrupted by power? I mean, he was already in Dubai. On a clear day, if you look out the window, you might even spot a member or two from the BCCI. Besides, it would seem to be the most natural thing in the world for him to do. Hence the question: Why in heaven’s name would Cameron risk jeopardizing this close, cozy relationship that the WICB enjoyed with the BCCI? – A relationship that was strengthened after the WICB obliged to a last minute request for a tour of India in 2012.
What is even more baffling is why Cameron would drag the BCCI into this dog fight between the WICB and the players. Over the last few years, we have seen cricket boards around the world (take your pick) falling over themselves trying to get a front row seat with the BCCI. Given the paucity of the WICB, pardon the expression but they do not have a pot to pee pee in, and the relative financial might of the BCCI, why would any leader, any Board president, with a modicum of common sense jeopardize such a coveted position? Interestingly, this fight between the WICB and its players is precisely over the issue of money – specifically, funding for the development of cricket in the region – seen as one of the main reasons for the fall from grace of the great West Indies team. Now we face the real possibility of a $42 M payout, and the cancelation of all bilateral tours with India for the next two years.
It gets worst. We have Cameron’s apparent attempt to discredit the BCCI’s version of events that led up to Indiagate. If you would recall, WICB issued a statement that, somehow, seemed to suggest that the BCCI was misrepresenting the events that resulted in the aborted tour. While one might not go so far as to suggest that Cameron was calling the BCCI liars, it certainly comes pretty close to it. In fact, it was so close that the BCCI’s secretary, Patel, was forced to publish several correspondences between the BCCI and the WICB that purportedly indicated that WICB, in other words, Cameron, took a rather callous attitude to the entire affair and seemed somewhat indifferent to the possibility that the tour might be cancelled.
Is this the leadership that Cameron promised in the last election?
