Great responsibility may come with great power. But nothing of that sort was on display from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday. Basketball-sized egos kicked into action when the BCCI ‘asked’ Team India to ‘skip’ — it wasn’t a ‘boycott’! — the International Cricket Council Annual Awards function in London.
The cause for the ‘non-attendance’?
Version 1: the invitation to the function “came too late”.
Version 2: a BCCI babu felt slighted at having not been invited.
If we didn’t know better, we would have bet the India-England series scoreline — 0-4 in the Tests, 0-2 and a tied match in the ODIs — made the Indians stay away.
But hang on. If mighty Dhoni and his boys don’t suffer from a sarkari mentality, didn’t their ready kowtowing to the BCCI’s ‘request’ to stay away from the ICC ceremony point to a serious lack of spine and sportsmanship?
Unless, of course, every player was too mutilated from injuries to make it to the function.
Oh, and just to put the un-cherry on the un-cake: Mahendra Singh Dhoni was awarded the Spirit of Cricket Award at the ICC ceremony — for recalling Ian Bell in the second Test at Trent Bridge.
As Bell was invited to accept the award on Dhoni’s behalf, we cracked a few ribs guffawing at the irony of it all.
{{/usCountry}}As Bell was invited to accept the award on Dhoni’s behalf, we cracked a few ribs guffawing at the irony of it all.
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