Rants and anything that gets up me! 
Double Standards- Its all about the money!
Posted 16 Oct 2008 at 20:47 by el-capitano
I was meaning to post this weeks ago, but I've finally found time now.
Australia have pulled out of two tours to Pakistan this year due to security concerns.
Australia were due to play two Test matches and four one-day internationals in Pakistan in March this year, however this was 'postponed' due to a "wave of violence in Pakistan surrounding last month's elections," including bomb blasts and shootings.
This was after Australia had already cut the tour back to two Tests and four one-dayers from the original three Tests, five one-dayers and one Twenty20 game because of security concerns.
Then the Champions Trophy, due to be held in September, was also postponed. Sure this wasn't just from Australia alone this time, but they were one of the four main opponents to it being held in Pakistan.
Pakistan had even offered security as if the players were a visitng Head of State. Shafqat Nagmi, the Board’s Chief Operating Officer said, Pakistan will provide personal bodyguards and other security measures to visiting players if they expressed any security concerns.
“The players and officials will be provided with a security cover generally reserved for visiting VIPs,”
But even that wasn't good enough for our cricketers, and that's because in the whole scheme of things, Pakistan isn't important, India is. India has the money, and that's the main point.
Fast forward to October. Australia are due to tour India.
India itself is not the most stable of countries. In 2005 alone there were 10 recent fatal bomb blasts in India, and then not even two weeks before Australia's tour, there were three major bomb attacks.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/fiv...651024092.html
The Aussie cricketers themselves admitted that they were uneasy to tour India.
However they all still went.
Why? Because they don't want to get the Indian Cricket Board and fans offside. Most of the Australian team are on big money contracts with Indian teams for the Indian Premier League Cricket. The last thing they would want to do is jeopardise their cash cow, by not touring and offending them.
It reeks of hypocrisy that they would tour a country that has security concerns, but use the same excuse not to tour elsewhere!
It all comes back to the..............
Australia have pulled out of two tours to Pakistan this year due to security concerns.
Australia were due to play two Test matches and four one-day internationals in Pakistan in March this year, however this was 'postponed' due to a "wave of violence in Pakistan surrounding last month's elections," including bomb blasts and shootings.
This was after Australia had already cut the tour back to two Tests and four one-dayers from the original three Tests, five one-dayers and one Twenty20 game because of security concerns.
Then the Champions Trophy, due to be held in September, was also postponed. Sure this wasn't just from Australia alone this time, but they were one of the four main opponents to it being held in Pakistan.
Pakistan had even offered security as if the players were a visitng Head of State. Shafqat Nagmi, the Board’s Chief Operating Officer said, Pakistan will provide personal bodyguards and other security measures to visiting players if they expressed any security concerns.
“The players and officials will be provided with a security cover generally reserved for visiting VIPs,”
But even that wasn't good enough for our cricketers, and that's because in the whole scheme of things, Pakistan isn't important, India is. India has the money, and that's the main point.
Fast forward to October. Australia are due to tour India.
India itself is not the most stable of countries. In 2005 alone there were 10 recent fatal bomb blasts in India, and then not even two weeks before Australia's tour, there were three major bomb attacks.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/fiv...651024092.html
The Aussie cricketers themselves admitted that they were uneasy to tour India.
However they all still went.
Why? Because they don't want to get the Indian Cricket Board and fans offside. Most of the Australian team are on big money contracts with Indian teams for the Indian Premier League Cricket. The last thing they would want to do is jeopardise their cash cow, by not touring and offending them.
It reeks of hypocrisy that they would tour a country that has security concerns, but use the same excuse not to tour elsewhere!
It all comes back to the..............
Total Comments 2
Comments
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Well put and you're probably echoing the thoughts of many.Posted 17 Oct 2008 at 06:29 by mas cambios
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Jeez, I didn't know they were being paid in US dollars. No wonder they wanted to go.
On the security issue, it did seem strange to me that players we're dumb enough back in Feb/March to individually comment on their concerns on going to Pakistan, instead of the well toted and sensible "we're cricketers, we'll go where CA tells us after a security assessment" etc. They expressed concerns about Pakistan knowing full well that they were going to put their names down for the IPL auction, and could end up being signed up to say Deccan (Hyderabad), as Symonds and Gilly were. It looked really bad for Symonds as he was so vocal about the Pakistan tour and how he couldn't live with himself if a Pakistani fan was injured in an attack either at or on their way to, or even in the same area as an attention grabbing match. Yet he ended up "playing" in Hyderabad (for an insane amount of dosh), where there were local security concerns at the time and indeed small attacks during (but not linked to) the Aussie ODI tour in late 07. Of course there were large and horrible attacks in Jaipur (home of Warnie's Royals) during the IPL, yet the final home games were played in Jaipur as it was agreed (well stated publicly anyway and whilst I agree with the following notion I suspect losing craploads of money and face was the real reason) that "to halt public life is to give in to those who commit such attacks". The London Tube attacks occurred right at the beginning of the one dayers before Ashes 05, yet the tour rightfully went on.
It was interesting to hear an ABC Radio forum that was originally aired only hours before the Islamabad Marriot bombing that made many think "lucky they didn't go to Pakistan". In that interview, former/current/future/possibly late Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson stated rather prophetically that "you wouldn't be playing in Islamabad anyway as it's a political town". To me, that highlighted a point that a security consultant on that same forum raised. Our security levels for travel, are usually set the same for enitre countries, which is just nutty. Even this week I believe the ICC has tried to renegotiate a calendar for the postponed Champions trophy in Pakistan on the condition it be played in a maximum of 2 cities.
Australia has for a long time left itself open to criticism for it's decisions on where it will and won't tour. Ironically, Australia had been accused of avoiding India for a long time back in the late 80's and 90's.
I don't mind them getting danger money. I've always believed that if you stick yourself down a mine or 30 floors up (during construction anyway), you should be paid accordingly. It just gives me the pips when they get paid to avoid it.Posted 22 Oct 2008 at 08:51 by Doccaau
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