Friday, March 23, 2007

Cricket's second casualty

Cricket needs a serious reality check. Match fixing scandal few years ago dealt the first blow, and when we seemed to have come out of those dark times, greed has raised its ugly head again. And how. The murder of the coach of a national team, during the biggest cricketing event of the world, rocks the very foundation of faith in everything that is good about the game. What makes it even more sad is the stature of the victim - Bob Woolmer, the coach extraordinaire and a thorough gentleman by everyone's account who knew him personally and professionally. Well, maybe not by some who clearly stood to lose financially by his mere presence. These are early days yet, and details about the crime will no doubt emerge eventually. Details do not concern me anyway, and what I know up to now is enough to make me eschew, here and now, all ties with cricket, both national and international. The game has lost a great man on a single Saturday night, but its second casualty - the enormous following all over the world - may well be an enduring one.

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