From Cricinfo, “Pictures from Sky Sports appeared to show Akhtar flicking his thumb at the ball as he walked back to his mark,”…um…so? Who gives a fuck?! I’ve seen players flick the ball a thousand times when walking up to their marks, presumably to get grass dirt off.  Apparently that is “still illegal as only the umpire can do so.” Please do watch the video below and tell me what you see. If he did something like this repeatedly then fine, there probably was something dodgy going on, but only once? Give me a fucking break, as I said before it happens every time an international match is played, I guess the skin colour is what makes it questionable or illegal.

bollocks, tried embedding it but didnt work…just click here

That this matter even received attention is ridiculous. I mean look at what Nasser Hussain said, “I can’t believe that he would be so stupid.” It’s the bloody WASPS who commentate who are being idiots. What is it about British and Australian teams that make them unable to accept defeat? Something always crops up when they lose or going through bad patches, ball tampering is the obvious example. I believe Atherton in frustration requested the 15-over rule to be changed after we walloped them in the ’96 quarters(though I’m not entirely sure about that). And it’s not limited to the sport of cricket, hockey once dominated by countries like India and Pakistan has now largely become dominated by rich countries after synthetic surfaces were introduced. A change that took hockey away from the majority of those who enjoyed it and gave it to those who can afford it and allowed the rich majority to become the “best in the world.”

What the South Asian bloc should do if these double standards continue is a difficult question. We can walk out of the ICC and bring it tumbling down. After all we have greater purchasing power and clout than Australia, England and NZ combined. Africa is largely powerless with only South Africa being a country of any significance. We walk out and everything falls down, the white countries will play with each other and the browns with each other. The West Indies will probably just disappear as a cricketing country while South Africa will probably stick with the white countries due to “security concerns.” The sad thing is if we do split along those lines, as a friend pointed out the Aussies, Kiwis and the English will probably be pretty happy playing themselves endlessly and competing to be the ‘best.’ The alternative is we put up with it and keep trying to change the system step by step. When I’m pissed I prefer the former, when I’m calm I prefer the latter, well somewhat.