Post of the Week # 1 : Please Vote

[Zap_Brannigan]

POTW#1 has officially ended. Since two posts are so close and above the competition, My Two cents and SJS50 are joint winners. SJS50 & MTC will be rewarded with 10 million ICF$ from me and POTW#1 winner tag (if mods oblige). 1.

If we haven't had enough of the BENGALI TIGERS and the perpetually CORNERED TIGERS in the neighbourhood, we now have these STUFFED LIONS pestering around. Can we have some CIVILIZATION please?

2.

The 6 categories of life-bans - PCB style 1) The "He's so talented to stay banned" ban In this kind of life-ban the player is banned between a series end and the next series beginning. Before the next series, realisation sets in that they dont have a player to replace the banned player, the fans clamour for a comeback, the authorities decide that the banned player has learnt his lesson and the player is pardoned and selected for the next series A typical Pak fan comment - "He might have murdered someone but it was for his country and anyways I dont care how many he murders as long as he still plays in the next match" Typical example : - Sohaib Akhtar 2) The "He is just stupid" ban In this kind of life-ban, the player is banned because of extreme unsporty behaviour/cheating, but is pardoned based on the fact that the player has an IQ below 50. Kind of like when criminals plead insanity as a defense A typical Pak fan comment - "He doesnt realise that he was cheating while dancing on the pitch or biting the ball because he is such a beast Typical example :- Shahid Afridi 3) The "He was led astray" ban In this kind of life-ban, the presence of another player having had more than 2 life-bans automatically helps the newbie to be pardoned based on association. Everyhting is blamed on the more experienced culprit and the other guy is the innocent lamb led astray by the wolf. the newbie is also thought to be completely incapable of independent thoughts, a prime criteria to be 'talented' Typical Pak fan comment - Ban that senior guy. Why was he in the same state when the newbie commited the offense? He might have retired but he still is such a bad influence on the youngsters Typical example - Asif (his first time) and possiby Amir 4) The "PCB is your father" ban This kind of life-ban is enforced by PCB to show a player, who has been getting too big for his boots, his rightful place. The ban can be immediately re-considered if the said player begs forgiveness (despite doing no wrong) and bows to PCB dictates. A typical Pak fan comment - Why cant X beg forgiveness for all his sins even though he has never commited them. Its for the country's sake Typical example - YK and MoYo 5) The "Save his ass from ICC" ban This kind of life-ban is used to protect star players from being banned by ICC. The ban is enforced only to be removed before the next series after a "democratic" tribunal hears the appeal A typical Pak fan comment - But he has already been punished by PCB once. How can ICC punish him twice for the same crime Typical example - Asif 6) The "Its all a conspiracy" ban In this life-ban, the player is banned because of loads of evidence against him but then it is alleged to be a conspiracy by BCCI/RAW/Mossad and following a national outcry, the player is unbanned Typical Pak fan comment - I am sure BCCI added nandro while he was peeing into a test tube Typical example - Asif

3.

with the fixer disguised as the Fat Bastard!

4.

u are forgetting that the PAAAVARHAAUSE has more phaaasht bowlers than any other country. they might not even need to call Showbabe. waiting in the wings are other terrifyingly phaaasht jazba and junoon bowlers such as Wuhab Riaz, Sohail khan, mohammad talha, mohammad ali bakwaasullah, taheer naqqassh, sikander bakht, mullah mohammad omar, prince faisal the third, and young ali al-kababuddin. and lets not forget mohammad irfan, the 7'9 NBA first round draft pick for the Los Angeles clippers, who opted out to play kirkett for his beloved dil dil pakistan. they are all lightning phaaasht, stump dishtroying, yorker chucking, inverse swinging, un-aging, ball scratching bowlers that india can never dream of producing, and our jobless paki website administrators living on the DOLE in the ex colonial empire headquarters of the UK can hook u up with plenty of xclusive interviews and sexy video clips.

5.

I haven't been here for some time for various personal reasons. I did post a few thoughts on CW and just to save the effort, I will do a cut and paste job. My apologies for that. On cricketers should be paid more so that they are not "pulled" by the lure of easy money

I am amazed at the logic of paying more money to players so that they are not tempted to cheat ! This is fantastic. Start paying huge sums to known kidnapping gangs in Uttar Pradesh india so that kidnappings go down. Start paying ten times the current salaries to Indian bureaucrats so that corruption can be reduced. In other words, reward people for being crooked. Hoping that advance payment will prevent subsequent deviant behaviour. Weird ! The first thing that needs to be done is deterrent punishment. But we are oh soooo forgiving. One does not need to go into the number of times deviant behaviour by cricketers has brought exactly the kind of uproar we are reading and hearing here and then those very cricketers come back. People like Azharuddin are now honourable members of parliament. We deserve the crooks that exist in our midst, amongst our politicians, our police, our bureaucrats and our sportsmen. Let every Indian and pakistani put his hand on his heart and ask himself (you dont have to tell us) if he/she does not know of relatives who are in positions of influence and make money through corruption. I have some big ones in my family and they are not shunned by anyone. they are big shots and get royal treatment y family members even while people continue to shout themselves hoarse about the state of our countries. All those who are exposed in this scandal will go scot free (unless you take a few hundred thousands as fine or missing a few tests as punishment enough) and will continue to play and the fans who are screaming blue murder will, by and large, be supportive of it. Two years from now we will be talking of "where is the proof". We deserve the rot that exists in our systems for we do not have the balls to do anything about it.

On Some of our poiticians making our corrupt cricketers look like saints

Sure :-) thats just the point I was trying to make. There is no difference between our MP's, bureaucrats, crooks, smugglers AND sportsmen. We are all the same and great hypocrites to boot. Everything is forgiven and forgotten with time, riots in Delhi or Gujarat, Mrs Gandhi's rape of democracy, the daily scandals by the same politicians for decades et al. Its not any different with errant sportsmen. We will forgive the Aamirs of today as we forgave the Azhar's, Jadeja's, and Sharma's of yesterday. We will come out in defense of the cricketers of today with things like, minor offense, he must have been pressurised by others, they get sop little money poor guys, where is the proof (there never is any after decades of legal quagmire in our part of the world). One can just go on and on. I am sorry to sound so negative but this is such a painful thing for me watching our downward slide over over the years and please dont give me this nonsense about Manmohan Singh being an honest politician. The poor guy cant win a single election in our country and thats the point I am trying to make. Don't also give me the great strides India has made as a nation and the ten percent growth rate. Hansie Cronje wasn't excused for the strides South African cricket made. We are so thick-skinned and so damned defensive when it comes to looking under our carpets and we expect things to improve? I am sorry for the temper but this really pisses me off.

On this being a case of Spot Fixing

Lets get this thing straightened out. NOTW did not ask Majeed to have the no balls bowled. The Majeed character has been going around trying to promote his "business" of 'fixing' cricket matches for the benefit of his clients - existing or potential. The NOTW reporters contacted him pretending to be a far east betting syndicate and wanted to know how could Majeed assure them he was not just making an idle boast. In order to prove his credentials, of his hold over the Pakistani cricketers, of being able to get them to do his bidding, he suggested a small 'trailer' if you please; of a 'relatively harmless' preview (as far as the game and any actual betting is concerned) of what he could do. So he said he could make them bowl no balls on the exact balls of the exact over and gave the over and ball numbers off the cuff. When asked who would bowl the particular overs, he said so and so. All this NOT FOR ANY SPOT FIXING, as the media has been crying hoarse, but just to advertise the quality of his 'product/services' - if you please. And then he delivered on his promise. To watch the tapes live and to see what actually happened is shocking even when one is convinced that this kind of thing has been happening regularly for a long time. To say that these are allegations and not yet proven maybe okay from the point of view of protecting one's backside from legal action by the defendants but to actually believe that this entire thing is some elaborate hoax is to deny that your ancestors were apes; and to claim the ostrich as a recent grand grand grand . . . parent. Yes the bowlers concerned were not doing any great harm to the game in question by those three no balls surely it showed what a hold characters like Majeed have over these cricketers. To say that salman butt was not involved is to show complete lack of logic and reasoning. How could it be assured that the 'right' bowler bowled the particular over without the captain being involved? To say that only the Pakistani cricketers do such things is to show naiveté, bias, a holier than thou attitude or a combination of one or more of these. However, having said that, the fact is that it is Pakistan who have been embroiled in it so often, they are the ones that are being caught with the hand in the cookie jar and they are the ones that are squealing on their team-mates. So they have to face the music. To ask for Pakistan to be banned from Test cricket because their cricketers are involved is unfair but it is not unfair to ask Pakistan to take stringent and IRREVOCABLE action or else. This is nit just completely fair but is also absolutely necessary. That Mr Pawar, a senior minister from a country that has serious political issues going back over sixty years with Pakistan, is the President of ICC is yet another reason to bemoan the pre-eminence of politicians in sporting bodies. He is in between a rock and a hard place today and he does not know what to do. The only people who have genuine stakes in the game and who should be expected to do the right thing in this situation are the poor hapless Pakistani cricket fans. One's heart goes out to them but how one wishes they would put their knee-jerk reactions, defensive or otherwise, aside and realise what an unholy mess their cricket and their country is in. It doesn't matter whether the rest of the world is being fair to them or not. They need to ask themselves whether they are being fair to their country's and their cricket's long term future. Sentimentality and trying to put up a front before the rest of the world wont help anything except pamper our personal egos. We have to understand that the bruises to our egos, howsoever severe, are the least of our problems in such a crisis. There are much more serious and urgent issues at stake. We dont have to listen to the shameless leaders who are crying,"Its a moment of shame for our country". These leaders have brought greater shame to our countries than the cricketers. But the fact ios that we are discussing the cricketers now and we need to set our house in order as far as the cricket is concerned. I may be excused for using the first person even when talking of the Pakistani fans but as always, I feel a strong sense of affinity to my brothers across the border and wish them well.

On the merits or otherwise of removing the named cricketers immediately

Even yesterday a very senior Indian journalist said on TV that not removing these guys immediately (same day) must have already vitiated the atmosphere of the dressing room. He specifically said that the talk in the dressing room is in all likelihood going to be about how much money these guys made and not whether they did something wrong. That those n ot involved are going to only feel envious for not having shared in the spoils. Mr Sheharyar Khan was on the video link at the same time and did not say a word to say this was not likely to be the case let alone protest vehemently. Pakistan has many problems and not even the majority of them are because of the cricketers but surely one of the biggest is not having ever taken exemplary punishment and carried it through. The only person whose "life-ban" has ever stood in Pakistan was Salim Malik and that was not because he was more guilty but because he was at the end of his career anyway. When someone does things like Afridi's dance or eating a cricket ball, they deserve absolutely no mercy. Here the guy ended up rising to become Pakistan team's captain. Mohammad Asif is a classic case. Pakistan has to realise that cricketing expediencies do not justify letting cheats continue. Where are they now (Pakistan cricket that is) neither close to the top of cricket ranking and surely at the bottom of the 'fair play' awardees ! Lots of things need to be done besides to restore the long term health of the game i Pakistan and elsewhere but letting such blatant behaviour not get the utmost deterrent punishment is not one of them. I do not yield to anyone, on this forum or elsewhere, as a well wisher of Pakistan, its people and its cricketers and I say the above with that sentiment as the only one governing my words.

On the changing Tune of Pakistani authorities over the last two days

It was amusing to see Pakistani cricketers and politicians veering around to, nothing has been proven, no one is arrested, no one is charged, not fair to jump to conclusions. But thats true to form. After the initial shock and fury, they have always resorted to this line so one would have been surprised only if they had done otherwise. What is irritating, however, is that the media is not able to challenge them beyond saying, "but how can you deny what you see on tape" and then shut up when they repeat, "No one has been charged" line once again. But even that is not surprising for most of the TV anchors are only good for using sensational words not for going into the facts of the matter which are as under . . . 1. ICC can not take any action till the law of the land (England) has run its course. . . . . . . and the law of the land is stymied. 2. Majeed Mazhar was let off on bail and no charges have been framed because there is no law that seems to have been broken ! Under British law for a case of fraud to be registered there has to be a party that has been defrauded. Someone ought to have bet on those balls being not being no-balls and hence lost money on account of a conspiracy between the players/Majeeed/whoever else. This did not happen because this was not a case of "spot fixing" as the idiots of the media have been crying hoarse from the beginning. As I mentioned in an earlier post it was only Majeed trying to show the NOTW reporters, who he thought represented a far east betting syndicate, that he had leverage with the Pakistani players. There WAS no betting involved. He just took the money, said so-and-so over's so-and-so ball willl be a no-ball and delivered on his promise. All to show what he could do in the interest of FUTURE business possibilities with this "Betting syndicate" Looking for a proof of fraud will of course result in no proof for their was no intention to defraud anyone ! Majeed never said any betting was taking place for on those no-balls. So where is the question of finding any proof of spot-fixing in those tapes. 3. No court of law in England can bring them to book and the Pakistanis having realised that have started "bulding thier defense" around this without bothering to go into the heart of the matter which is that Majeed could get players to do his bidding for money on the field of play. This was just a trailer of what he could do in future (or may have done in the past as he claims) for the benefit of new potential clients ! 4. The ICC, once the law has run its course, can bring the players to book for bringing the game into disrepute etc etc but I could take a small bet that by then the Pakistani establishment would have talked so long and so with so much of damaged innocence, of "no law was broken, no match was fixed, there was no spot-fixing involved, no betting involved, no proof has been found, our players are innocent and so on and so forth. The majority of the Pakistani public would have, by then, started believing this nonsense which completely ignores what actually happened and all sorts of conspiracy theories about attempts to malign Pakistan by its enemies will be brandished with impunity. Unfortunately for Pakistan, for its cricket, and for the game in general this will be another tragedy. But who cares after the sound and fury has spent its course. Its business as usual for everyone.

On what should be done . . . but WONT be done

I think the simple thing to do, since Scotland Yard is not going beyond the criminal aspects if any 9and there are none it seems) of what happened, is for PCB, ICC and whosoever is genuinely interested, is to get a report from the Scotland Yard of the genuine-ness of the Video tapes and the claims made by NOTW and Majeed. If the answer is yes(which is most likely) they have to take the most stringent possible action against all those involved directly PLUS initiate sincere efforts to find who eklse is involved and not yet named. If the answer is no (that is the video is a fraus or the NOTW and/or Majeed are lying) then they should put their money where their mouths are and file for a massive defamation case (from the PCB and the Pakistan Governments side) to bring the matter to a logical conclusion. Of course none of this is going to happen. The Scotland Yard will make its report and close the case if no criminal charges can be framed (as is likely if no laws of the land have been broken), PCB and Pakistan Government and cricketers (past and present) will shout from the roof tops about conspiracies and the fans will go back home to watch the next game. I am sorry if this sounds cynical but this is how it is. This is why the ball is now squarely in the ICC's court for no one else has either the inclination or the interest to do anything more. Unfortunately from ICC and Mr Pawar I expect nothing . . . nothing whatsoever either on this or on the IPL scam where he is the only one involved with the BCCI who refuses to say anything completely negative about Mr Modi. The reasons are obvious to some and suggest themselves to others but no one cares for what matters at the end of the day is the greenback and thats what brings about the scams . . . and thats what helps sweeping all the dirt back under the fabulous, thick, exotic carpets. Boycott the games as cricket fans if you care. I intend to if this matter too is brushed under the carpet.

[Roshanrocks]

where is SJS Sir's post? :search:

[kabira]

please vote away.

[Roshanrocks]

voted :hatsoff:

[Zap_Brannigan]

Bump for a new day

[Hindustani]

all are really good once, can't decide :(

[Nova]

Voted for SJS :two_thumbs_up:

[gaurav92]

SJS and MTC one's were the best.Voted for SJS but hey MTC trust me it wasn't easy fro me to vote him, it took me a long time to decide whom to vote.

[asterix]

I voted for MTC..The post was originally posted in this forum and quickly became popular in other forums later.. Great contribution..

[riwi999]

The posts of both SJS and MTC were really very very good. I liked the others too. It was not an easy decision but finally I went with MTC. I read that post again and again - it just puts a big, broad smile on my face. Sheer class!

[Zap_Brannigan]

Although all the posts were really good, both MTC and SJS50's posts have stood out for the users. Even though MTC's post put a huge smile on our faces,SJS50's posts is thorough and squashes any and all loopholes that were brought to the table by our beloved padosis to defend their cheating players, thus emerging victorious in the POTW competition. SJS50 will be rewarded with 10 million ICF$ from me and POTW#1 winner tag (if mods oblige).

[SachDan]

Both posts were special in their own way and it is a shame we had to pick only one!

[kabira]

Well not a clear winner. Looks like Hung Parliament here :) award to both.

[Roshanrocks]

how about a runner up tag to MTC

[CSK Fan]

how about a runner up tag to MTC

Yeah, am completely broke

[SachDan]

how about a runner up tag to MTC

In fact it won't be a bad idea to announce them as joint winners. SJS himself said his post first appeared in CWB..so its obvious that ICF is not his first love :P Whereas MTC who's been a long time member of PP, the place where his post might have gotten more attention ignored it and decided to post here first. It became popular in other forums as well..so in the end good publicity for ICF as well! I mean these simple things need to be taken into account when there is no clear-cut winner.

[Zap_Brannigan]

Sure..Since both posts are so close and above the competition, i pronounce them both winners of POTW .

[SachDan]

POTW#1 has officially ended. Since two posts are so close and above the competition, My Two cents and SJS50 are joint winners. SJS50 & MTC will be rewarded with 10 million ICF$ from me and POTW#1 winner tag (if mods oblige).

:congrats:

[asterix]

:congrats:

[gaurav92]

SJS and MTC both sheer class