The Conscience of Cricket.

            Since 1788 the MCC and Lords have been the home, heart, soul and conscience of cricket. I can’t remember quite when they were replaced but it may have been at about the time the Lords of Cricket stood four square against Kerry Packer and limited overs cricket.

            The new monsters of the midway called the ICC moved into Lords to share digs with the England Cricket Bound,  the MCC and Middlesex. The marriage was short lived and the ICC currently resides in Dubai not only to reflect the shift of the axis of power in cricket to Asia and Africa but also to take advantage of the laws that allow them to hoard the money they mine from cricket.

            It took about 200 years to undermine the power of the MCC over cricket. It has taken barely 25 to 30 years for the ICC to hand it back. The why is not too hard to discern.

            The last world cup was a local community relations disaster. The previous world cup in S. Africa will be remembered for the lip service paid by the English to the rule of law and New Zealand to their contractual agreements.

            It is not to say that the world has not changed but the moral compass has not. Cricket is a game. Its beauty is in its simplicity. Three pegs, bails, a ball and a bat and the game is on. When concluded the green space is returned to park. No goal posts to mar the view.

            As for the MCC Committee recommendations I would go further than the MCC and not only ban glue to cement wickets but artificial wickets of any kind.

            As for the MCC reasserting its position as the conscience of cricket as a first step they should consider reasserting their independence from the oligopolies that control cricket by having a communications presence on the internet separate from cricinfo.

            June 11, 2007 Cricinfo announced that they had been sold to Disney, one of the biggest corporate oligopolies on the block, trading on the NYSE at $34.15, volume on the day 6.9 million shares traded. Now there is a pleasant thought, the M.C.C. media and communications, being controlled by a Disney subsidiary. So much for the conscience of cricket reasserting itself through the M.C.C.

            Insallah.

“CVT"