hondo71 wrote:On Zimbabwe - Mugabe is a dictator yes but there is no apartheid. In fact, Mugabe came to power in 1980 after a revolution to sack the previous Govt who supported apartheid. There are elections coming up however unfortunately the oppostion party leader looks to be no less of a potential dictator than Mugabe so Zimbabwe still has a ways to go. Interestingly, altho Mugable is a dictator the human rights abuses are not quite what the Western media would have us believe. It is more the corruption and a basket-case economy causing the issues rather than armed conflict. Why am I a sudden expert? I had a long social chat with a Zimbabwean doctor working in Australia.
On a tiered system for cricket I vote No. At one stage the West Indies, India, Pakistan, NZ were all in the same boat as Bangladesh is now. There were one-sided results like there are now however the best way to get competitive is to play the best. It will take some time but that's sport. Setting up a tier creates a 'poor cousin' sub-division and the teams in it will not improve as fast as they could. What if Australia in the mid 80s were relegated and could only play minnows for a few years? The ACB would have gone broke. Was it better for the Aussies to get flogged by the West Indies and harden up or go out and thrash Sri Lanka a few times and cover up the cracks instead.
If England were relegated to a second tier in the one-dayers do we think the England Cricket Board would agree to missing out on the financial gains from playing the likes of Australia and South Africa? No chance .... Ditto any other cricket board especially on the sub-continent.
I didn't say wit was exactly apartheid, just that there are comparisons. From what I can gather, it's more of a payback he is making.
Besides, they should be punished for reducing the state of Cricket there to laughing stock, instead of the developing, promising nation they were in the late 90s.
Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 11:14 am
