There are questions being raised about the inclusion of the minnows in the World Cup.While there is a strong argument from the minnows' backers stating that none of the current 'Big boys' teams would have come up to the current level had they never been given the opportunity or the recognition at the international level,there is also this equally strong argument about the dilution of the importance of the majestic event - World Cup,with the innumerable warm-up matches and sheer butchering that the minnows get at the hands of the established teams,some of whose members end up accumulating records that could never be broken in a lifetime.
Coming to the current burning issue of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer's death,which prompted me to write this piece in the first place.Day after day since last week,I have been waking up to see the updates from the investigations and it is getting murkier and murkier!While it started off with indications of Woolmer being a Type-2 diabetes patient,who might have succumbed to a natural cause such as a cardiac arrest or some kind of a lethal mental shock or excessive dose of medication and alcohol due to his team's defeat,it has now turned out to be one of the most speculated controversies in current times.There are so many figments of imaginations being put in place such as the one by the veteran Pakistani cricketer Safraz Nawaz about the involvement of the betting syndicate to knock the coach off,because of him planning to expose the defaulting players.There is also the latest and greatest news of Woolmer's neck having marks,which has led to theories of strangulation.
The marked silence from the Pakistani team members and their cricket board seems to indeed indicate that there might have been some foul play.Amidst all the investigations and speculations,the Pakistani team's captain - Inzamam-Ul-Haq's untimely retirement from 'One-Day cricket' and his continuous portrayal of sadness and exposition of some kind of guilt over his coach's death,adds some more fodder to the story.Would he have known something about the mysterious circumstance leading to Woolmer's death,that he is put in a difficult position of having his mouth tight-lipped for the sake of his Pakistani brethren yet not being able to completely overcome the battle with his conscience?Or how about a few other twists to the story - the captain himself being involved with betting and the murder plan and eventually trying to bail himself out with a public display of anguish and self-sacrificing acts of stepping out of captaincy?Or going by some reports of how Woolmer was very close with Hansie Conje - the tainted South African captain,even when he was charged and found guilty with match-fixing,the question raises as to whether the coach was himself involved with the match-fixing or betting organizations.The more I think of it on these lines,the more does it substantiate the happenings and I am left wondering why Woolmer had to leave the South African coaching experience and start embracing a much troubled Pakistani cricket team where he was never getting the attention and respect that he wanted.Was the meeting of Woolmer with the Dlehi police to get details about match-fixing - Was it for his book contract or rather for getting bookies contact?Was he just a pawn on a global cheating scheme?I know its not ethical to speculate such things about a deceased person,who is being heralded as the most dedicated individual towards cricket,but then the recent happenings beg to ask such questions.
If the speculation is true that the source of the death was the food that Woolmer ordered through room service,then serious questions do arise about who the mastermind would be?Is it someone from the cricketing fraternity,namely the Pakistani team or is it a much global entity such as the betting syndicate or as some blogger had posed - a presidential decree from Pakistan to retaliate their national humiliation.For once,I would like to be proved wrong for the sake of Cricket's integrity.
Whatever it turns out to be,Cricket has lost its sheen completely this last week.It has been showing signs of degradation since the Azharuddin/Cronje matching fixing scandals,but had never sunk to such abysmal depths of wickedness and mystery.Although there are 20 to 30 different teams in cricket today,Cricket in itself has been one universal religion to its followers all around the world bringing in a sense of global brotherhood,friendship and sportsmanship.
God save cricket and its religious followers!
-Raapi
Posted by rajesh | 
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