TIME FOR EMIRATES CRICKET BOARD AND REGIONAL COUNCILS TO CRACK THE WHIP ON ‘ILLEGAL’ EVENTS
n the light of the scandal surrounding the unofficial T20 cricket tournament hosted at the Ajman Oval last week, it is of a great importance that the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB), through its cricket councils, assumes complete control over all the tournaments played in the country in order to avoid further damage to the sport’s reputation in the region.
A video clip of the tournament, that revealed batsmen intentionally throwing away their wickets, went viral compelling the Ajman Cricket Council (ACC) to suspend all activity at the venue. The video also attracted the attention of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Anti-Corruption Unit.
Although this tournament was not approved by the ACC, and was not part of the UAE’s domestic calendar, the video clip has drawn a lot of unwarranted negative publicity to the game in the region, which is a preferred choice for neutral matches.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) regularly host their international and Pakistan Super League (PSL) matches in the UAE, while the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are considering the UAE as an alternate venue to stage their next edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) due to 2019 general elections in India.
The ECB must act fast in order to prevent anyone from misusing this region for corrupt purposes.
There was a time, till a decade ago, when the tournaments held in the UAE were only those organised by the respective councils of the region. However, the scenario has changed following the advent of the Twenty20 format as tournaments mushroomed all over the UAE, without the approval or knowledge of the regional councils. As a result, the Ajman Oval debacle has raised many unanswered questions, which Emirates Cricket Board will have to address on a war-footing with their respective cricket councils.
Here are a look at five key issues plaguing UAE cricket:
Can anyone organise a tournament?
Today, anyone or any bunch of people can join hands and stage a tournament. Interestingly many of these people are not even well-known cricketers and some are those who haven’t even played the game. Regional councils do not know these organisers as they may not have played in any of their tournaments or been part of their cricket promotion. The number of such tournament organisers have swelled over the years as councils seem to have turned a blind eye and not moved to label the tournament as being illegal. It was their duty to inform teams and players and prevent them from participating in these ‘unofficial’ tournaments.
Who benefits from these tournaments?
The organisers of these tournaments claim that they are hosting the events to give exposure to cricketers and provide them a platform to reach the UAE team. As they are unapproved tournaments, any performance in these tournaments will not be taken into account for the UAE national team selection committee’s consideration. Teams and players in these tournaments sometimes receive money and individual awards as low as Dh250 when the organisers may have collected huge money from sponsors and also entry fees from teams in the guise of promoting cricket. No one audits these tournaments or checks whether profit is pumped back into promoting cricket. None of these organisers inform the sponsors, from whom they collect money to make them title sponsors or co-sponsors, that their tournament does not have cricket council’s approval. In the absence of any information, some radio channels also broadcast the tournaments and even results of the event.
Lack of grounds?
One of the reasons such tournaments mushroomed is because the seven grounds of the Dubai Cricket Council in the Al Jadaf area, where nearly 500 matches used to be staged, were taken over in 2006. This council hasn’t managed to get any alternative grounds and though over a decade has passed, till date it does not have a ground of its own. Many clubs and team owners say off-the-record that why should teams take permission from a council, which does not even have their own ground or facilities to stage even their own tournament? Teams flocked to Umm Al Quwain, which staged tournaments under the Ajman Cricket Council, but their 15 grounds, which used to stage 1,000 matches every year, were also taken away last year.
Lack of interaction between clubs, councils
Clubs and teams here rarely get to interact with the councils. Unlike in Test-playing nations where the districts’ associations hold general body meetings of representatives of clubs, council members and team or club owners here rarely meet for the elections of council members or representatives. Any errant club or player could have been stopped from playing in an unauthorised tournament by calling a meeting of clubs. The general grouse of the clubs is they do not get any benefit from the council in return for their annual registration fee.
‘Illegal’ tournaments
‘Illegal’ tournaments are not officiated by qualified umpires of the council, hence the men in white do not wield any power to take action against any act of indiscipline by a team or player. Tournaments can now be streamed live through websites — leaving scope for corruption. For officially approved tournaments, the names of overseas players have to be listed but in unauthorised tournaments, even a banned player of any country can play. The ball is now in the court of ECB and the councils to uphold cricket’s reputation in the region.