ICC-Asia Split - Would you really care?

[Neil Pickup]

Ultimately, cricket at grass roots level gets by without handouts from the top as it is. We find a way to cope; if I have to use up my minutes to call the Under 12s' parents this year because we're several thousand pounds of funding short, then so be it. There's enough of us who are diehard enough for the club scene to live on.

 

[Fusion]

Ultimately, cricket at grass roots level gets by without handouts from the top as it is. We find a way to cope; if I have to use up my minutes to call the Under 12s' parents this year because we're several thousand pounds of funding short, then so be it. There's enough of us who are diehard enough for the club scene to live on.

Neil, cricket in England and Australia may intially survive because of die hards like you and others. However, as time will pass, any split between Eng/Aus/Nz and Asia would have an adverse affect. There will not be as much money to market the game on a global stage. Young kids growing up will be far more attracted to Football, Basketball and other sports since they'll see the glitz and glamor of those sports on their TV screen. Cricket will be seen by those kids as just a quaint "local" sport that has no worldwide appeal. The interest in cricket will gradually decrease to a point where it will be a non-major sport. I think people advocating a split are not looking at the wider picture and implications. IIMO, if you love the sport you would not want this split, because it will lead to eventual doom.

 

[Neil Pickup]

I'm not advocating a split; I'm saying that it wouldn't have a major effect - small but subtle difference. Cricket is fundamentally played by people who have a parent or friend interested in the sport rather than seeing it on television - cricket never suffered in the inter-war years without TV or a worldwide stage, and every village has a cricket ground anyway.

England in Pakistan contests don't take the imagination of rural Devon; it may hurt inner cities but we will be fine. I'm not pretending for a second that this is an outcome I'd like for a second, but it wouldn't hurt my immediate circle of summer. It's brutally close-minded and a sickening disregard for much else, but fundamentally my summers wouldn't get affected.

 

[Turbinator]

Neil, cricket in England and Australia may intially survive because of die hards like you and others. However, as time will pass, any split between Eng/Aus/Nz and Asia would have an adverse affect. There will not be as much money to market the game on a global stage. Young kids growing up will be far more attracted to Football, Basketball and other sports since they'll see the glitz and glamor of those sports on their TV screen. Cricket will be seen by those kids as just a quaint "local" sport that has no worldwide appeal. The interest in cricket will gradually decrease to a point where it will be a non-major sport. I think people advocating a split are not looking at the wider picture and implications. IIMO, if you love the sport you would not want this split, because it will lead to eventual doom.

BEAUTIFUL! I coudn't haf said it better myself!

 

[archie mac]

But where will each board go?

Since there is so much money to be made via Sub-Con games and the BCCI building stadiums for other countries and what not, I doubt many will side with "ICC"

I am afraid only Aus and Eng might end up forming the ICC. I that case, time will force them to join "Asia" anyways

In his book Run Out, former CA CEO Graham Halbish talks about "PROJECT SNOW"

Here are some extracts from the book which was published in 2003

In 2002, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh signed a memorandum of understanding at an Asian cricket council meeting in Sharjah. Each country vowed that they would boycott any country that refused to tour any of the countries in the group. This ws aimed at Australia....

It was at this time that I was given the extraordinary task of drawing up a plan to ensure the survival of Australia, England, the West Indies and New Zealand in the envent of a split in world ranks. such a split was not only a possibility, but a realistic threat.

Project Snow was a genuing option for Australia and its closest allies to counter the power play by the sub-continent and South Africa. (South Africa became involved because of its decision to side with India and her allies at the ICC meeting, much to the surprise and dismay of England and Australia)