Unrestrained and sometimes manipulated successes, have been known to affect the judgement and good sense, normally seen in sportsmen .
Some successes have to do with field performance. Some have to do with green (as in currency) performance. Today, it is not surprising to note that most "fields" are "green", and it is probably to be expected that more green the field, higher the level of invisible weeds that will exist.
Some weeds that could have been slightly invisible earlier, may simply become a permanent field fixture.
It is probably known that some weeds, classified throughout the first world as L. O. ("litila obnoxica" for those of you interested in the doosra details), tend to be very resilient, spread very innovatively in fields, particularly in the southern hemisphere. With global warming and other global stuff impending on the horizon, conditions are expected to very conducive to the spread of this weed.
The International Weed Science society is in talks to upgrade the weed "L. O" , to the category of a premium plant, thanks to its several doosra ball and teesra bat capabilities. .
At the same time, studies have indicated that another species, classified as B. P. B (Big Pompous Bush, to those interested in special connnotations of the word "Bush" , worldwide) , has been in trials for implementing in Asian farmlands. Although very popular in islands in the southern hemisphere, those who invested in the seeds for this BPB, and paid through their companies for them, are now wondering , if the fruits of this plant will be accepted by the general populace, after the mandatory 44 days growth period.
The Ninth Annual National Invasive Weeds Awareness Week is being held in Washington, D.C. during the week of February 24 to February 29, 2008 to bring people and groups from across the country together to focus national attention on the severe impacts caused by invasive weeds.
Amazing coincidence, that .
The website of the Weed Science Society of America , mentions under "resistance" , the following :
Resistant weed biotypes are a consequence of basic evolutionary processes. Individuals within a species that are best adapted to a particular practice are selected for and will increase in the population. Once a weed population is exposed to a herbicide to which one or more plants are naturally resistant, the herbicide kills susceptible individuals, but allows resistant individuals to survive and reproduce. With repeated herbicide use, resistant weeds that initially appear as isolated plants or patches in a field can quickly spread to dominate the population and the soil seed bank.
Did the Right ( or should we say, Wrong) Honorable M. Haydon Esq. of Australia know about this when he classified the cricketer from India as an "Obnoxious little weed ?" Don't know if the Rt honorable Mr Hayden Esq . attended college, but he needs to update himself on field research, having to do, with studying, weeds, plucking methodologies, composting, manure etc etc. Its more about technique , and less about arbitrary potshots ( native to educational set ups where bullying and ragging is the choice ).
In the meanwhile, I am not sure, if the subcontinental bowler actually had heard of Henry Labouchere, who said :
"I do not waste my time in answering abuse; I thrive under it like a field that benefits from manure..."
(Actually, I hadnt heard of Mr Labouchere either; but I know of someone in Australia, who needs to go do some courses at the Weed Science Society of America.......
Like the Father of the Nation said "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
We await the last step.
Justice Hansen of New Zealand, himself, also the president of a Cricket Club, has said his piece.
A somewhat predictable end to a cricket field fight (having nothing directly to do with cricket, but everything to do with bad behaviour); a fight between players from India and Australia, respectively incensed and thrilled by the abominable umpiring by chaps from West Indies and England; a kachra level performance by a chap from South Africa, myopically functioning as a match referee. Finally a judge flies over from New Zealand to rap everyone on their gloved knuckles. Who have we left out ? Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh ....?
The game which started out as that played by the gentry in the Queen's land, folks in the pavilion gracefully applauding between bites of cucumber sandwiches and tea, (with a trip to the pub later), is now played in a modified cultural milieu, replete with spicy and alcoholic repasts..
Far removed from the time when Aussies and English verbally duelled on the pitch , in what my school teacher would have classified as gutter language, today, selective deafness, and advanced family and anatomical abuse seems to be a required qualification, in a game where , clean strokes, magical wristy flicks, spinning cherries, mighty sweeps, and asymptotic dives to block the ball, should have been the norm.
The advent of non-English speaking countries, the popularity of the game in these countries, and the rise of great players from these countries, has now introduced a factor, that the ICC with its stiff-upper-lip, loftily-perched -Anglo-based policy, needs to take a fast look at.
Once sledging is officially allowed under the guise of "playing hard and fair", you need umpires who understand what is tolerable and what is not. It will not suffice to have neutral umpires. Besides the rules of cricket, they will have to be well versed in choice abuse from all the countries.
A single match referee will not be enough. You will need a panel of chaps acting as match referees, so that there is one person from every country. Along with umpiring qualifications, folks will have to undergo multicultural sociological training. A comprehensive look at whats OK and what's not OK, depending on where the game is being played, between whom, during what part of the year.
This is where we folks from India are uniquely qualified .
With our amazing, unparalleled diversity of religions, languages, political parties, cross cultural understanding, and sometimes, purposeful non-understanding, as well as our capacity to live in a state of dynamic ,religious, economic, and cultural balance, we are uniquely set up to offer training to all the cricketing folks "who decide"..
The ICC should outsource this to India.
The BCCI can set up an International Institute at the Wankhede stadium, for the fine training of umpires and match referees. Now that doing things through video links has been successfully tried out during the monkey episodes, BCCI can even offer distance refresher courses, to those who forget all the bad words.
The trainees can then be taken on surprise tours of various vidhan sabhas where the speaker "umpire" has to often deal with non verbal communication in the form of flying microphones, chairs etc.
Situations that require facing dicey and unrelated reasoning can be handled by some folks from BCCI who specialise in confusing questions with answers .
One more source of income for BCCI. One more reason for some folks to gnash their teeth and crib about India's money power". One more somersault for people like Peter Roebuck.
And one more reason for someone like me,to hark back nostalgically, to her schooldays in a co-ed school, where school bullies always existed, rules were flouted, tearful and brave complaints were made, and the entire problem was successfully dealt with by the teachers, who used tough discipline, great understanding , and the active co-operation of other students to handle it, without making a song , dance and court case about it.
