Well it won't do it too many favours Rob. Unlike football (soccer :P )
it's not universal. It's most popular in Britain's old colonial
holdings, and those countries are the elites. Outside of there, although
cricket is played, the standard is a great deal lower. Canada, USA,
Argentina etc all play cricket but there would be no contest if they
came to the UK to play, for example.

The main Test playing nations are England, Australia, India, South
Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and West Indies. (You can also
add Bangladesh and Zimbabwe to that mix but they are simply there to
shore up India's vote on the ICC, not because they have actually earned
their place there.)

Below that are the associate nations and One Day International nations,
Ireland, Kenya, and a few others but there's a gulf of skill between
those nations at the top level. So if the Asian bloc ceded from the ICC
(or the others did) there would be a real dilution of the sport.

Riff

On Sun, 2008-07-06 at 23:50 -0700, Robert Hawthorn wrote:
> Just out of curiosity... since the game is so huge, would it hurt for
> it to be devided in such a way?
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Riff <riff@...>
> To: world_cricket@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Sunday, July 6, 2008 3:12:14 AM
> Subject: RE: [world_cricket] Forfeit result changed
>
> Let's face it, the ICC is as corrupt inside as the Zimbabwe regime.
> India is
> now hell bent on running the game and the "Indian bloc" as Bilal put
> it,
> vote as one in their own interests, not in the interests of the game.
> Governance of the game has gone to hell in a handbasket, thanks
> largely to
> the ICC and I predict within a few years that cricket will divide into
> 2 or
> more governing bodies.
>
> Riff
>
> www.crucialcricket.com
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: world_cricket@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:world_cricket@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of Old Father Time
> Sent: 05 July 2008 05:39
> To: world_cricket@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [world_cricket] Forfeit result changed
>
>
> Bilal Ahmed wrote:
> > I think it is a valid decision as the basis on which the whole issue
> > resulted i.e. "Ball tampering by Pakistani bowlers", has already
> been
> > found not correct.
>
> For me, this has nothing to do with it.
>
> > The point is when the two teams were ready to play and spectators
> > wanted to watch the game, the umpires have no right to call off the
> game.
>
> Nor this.
>
> In both cases, whether it was right or wrong, for me is irrelevant.
> What
> matters is that a governing body overuled the Laws of Cricket. And
> that
> is a worrying thing.
>
>
> > I don't think it is a dangerous precedent, and its better to move on
> > with the decision as it will rarely change anything
>
> I would have preferred to read this sentence a week or month or year
> ago. But clearly folks couldn't move on. So, logically, I don't need
> to
> either.
>
>
> > The more i am concerned about is that this incident clearly opened
> up
> > a wide divide among the cricketing world with all racism talk
> coming in.
>
> Not from me.
>
> > As a cricket fan I truly hope that like Asia Cup in Karachi we have
> a
> > successful ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan in Sept. 2008. This
> event
> > surely can help in getting rid of a lot of this off field non-sense
> > and get back to cricket.
>
> For me this won't happen either. As far as cricket goes, it will come
> and go (if it goes ahead as planned) like so many other one day and
> 20/20 tournaments do; a weird sort of blur that means basically
> nothing.
> As far as off-field nonsense goes, I can handle most things, but I
> love
> cricket. With that love comes the respect for the Laws. People always
> have and always will get it right, and be seen as wrong or get it
> wrong
> and be seen as right. There are some Laws I think are silly, and
> others
> that are as good as they can be. But all of them are what they are.
> For
> me they should be stuck to. In this situation, the ICC, who controls
> the
> running of the game, not the Laws, have overruled them. That is plain
> wrong, and I will not accept it otherwise.
>
> I am happy for you that you are enjoying your cricket.
>
>
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