An open letter to Malcolm Speed

Dear Mr Speed,

After all the 'tamaasha' of the past ten days, we finally end up with a solution that could have been achieved within two days of reasonable people getting involved in the discussion. Finally, all said and done, the ICC decided to act like a democracy and give the power of appeal (at least made provisions for a panel to decide its necessity) to its citizens and thus become accountable for its actions. Is that what all this fuss was about? Do we actually have to come out and ask this very simple thing?

Mr. Speed, in your country if the law ever happens to catch you doing something wrong, are you allowed to present your side of the story? Is it listened to fairly or does the law say - "First let us agree that we (the law) are always right and we are not answerable to you or anyone else ... let's hear your defense now.".

Are we right in assuming that you, easily one of the sharpest brains in the administrative business with the success of Australian cricket being a shining testament, are someone who will bring back respectability to the ICC which today demands rather than earns any respect it gets? Or are you just like every other administrator who uses his position to see that the people he does not like have a hard time? I have a lingering suspicion that had the country in question been Australia, South Africa or New Zealand instead of India or even India with a BCCI head other than Dalmiya, you might have taken a more reasonable position in the current crisis.

Your blind support for the rulings of the match referee and absolute refusal to allow the Indian board to appeal (something every common criminal even is allowed) is something that I cannot fathom an intelligent mind like yours would accept so easily as being correct. Do you watch a bit of International cricket in general or does your job solely consist of administration with knowledge of cricket, apart from laws, rules and workarounds, being nil? Did you even watch the clippings of the incidents in question and did you truly support Mike Denness, not as the ICC backing its member, but as thinking -

"Oh Yes, he got it right"? Come on, Mr. Speed, either you are very naive or you are very smart and something tells me it is not the former.

I will leave the administration of the game in your able hands, Mr. Speed; I have trouble even with the administration of my rented room what with those two chairs, one bed, three rats and one lizard creating trouble all the time. However, you must remember that if it is personal nitpicking you want to do then morally, the post of the Chief Executive of an international body is not the correct way to go about it. Taking on Dalmiya for personal reasons is fine as long as you were the head of the Australian cricket body. You and Dalmiya could play with each other without cricket suffering in the process and without the necessity of enacting this charade of saving it.

When you start to use the clout of the ICC to do your dirty work then you have to consider the repercussions on International cricket because you, Mr. Dalmiya and I know that taking insults meekly is something that is not acceptable to anyone - not to the BCCI, not to the ICC and not to anyone else.

Our complaint is simple - We did not start the fight, you did; By refusing something that is considered a right in all spheres of life and that too not just today but for quite some time; the right to a fair trial. Forget existing rules and all that - While everyone, including the BCCI, erred on the issue of approving the present set of rules as they are, it is really very silly to bring rules into an issue that is not about accepting the ICC authority but rather about bias, prejudice, pride, dignity and self respect, not necessarily in that order.

There might have been a lot of shenanigans over the past ten days from the Indian side but how often have you seen that happen with Indian cricket - Wouldn't you agree that the BCCI usually takes all it is handed out without a murmur? Ever heard of the straw that breaks the camel's back; Mike Denness was just that straw.

The nations playing under the ICC must accept the ICC rulings, you say, and almost all of us agree to that. What is unsaid, however, is that as the parent body that makes the rulings it is the ICC that is supposed to ensure that the children bodies have no cause for revolt. Being fair in your dealings with them is one way to ensure that and right now that is not happening.

This fight has ended now but the war hasn't and I am sure you realize that. The ICC will not become a body with a backbone just by squaring up with all who question it - it has to gain respect by appearing a just body as well as a firm one and there Mr. Speed, for International cricket's sake you have a big role to play. May I suggest, in all humbleness, that you start playing it? Editor's note: Rediff believes that like its own editorial staffers, readers too have points of view on the many issues relating to cricket as it is played.

Therefore, Rediff provides in its editorial section space for readers to write in, with their views. The views expressed by the readers are carried as written, in order to preserve the original voice.

However, it needs mentioning that guest columns are opinion pieces, and reflect only the feelings of the individual concerned -- the fact that they are published on Rediff's cricket site does not amount to an endorsement by the editorial staff of the opinions expressed in these columns.

Mail Sriram Ranganathan