Richard Boock: Taking prize for daftness

COMMENT

If there was ever any doubt over the International Cricket Council's position as the Keystone Cops of world sport, it would have surely evaporated after their latest brush with decision-making.

Long derided for their lack of teeth, not to mention spine, the ICC lived up to their reputation this week when they retreated from the controversial throwing law and announced instead that everyone was - or had been - a chucker.

It was the latest and easily most disturbing development surrounding Sri Lankan spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan, whose rise to international stardom has been dogged by scathing attacks on the legitimacy of his action.

Unwilling to enforce a rule that would have almost certainly forced Muralitharan from the game, the clothheads at Lord's caved in this week and changed one of cricket's most fundamental requirements: a visible straight arm at the point of delivery.

Not only that, but they also demonstrated a dubious inclination towards misinformation when they justified the change on the basis that almost every bowler in history would have been exposed as a chucker - if examined by today's technology.

This is nonsense, of course, and even more damning for the ICC, appears to be nothing more than a smokescreen to create an exemption for Muralitharan.

A sobering thought, isn't it, that the supposed guardians of the game could, in the blink of an eye, condemn all the world's greatest bowlers as chuckers to grant a reprieve for the biggest biffer in history.

But it shouldn't come as a great surprise that the ICC managed to make a pig's ear of the business.

They have long vied with Fifa and the International Olympic Committee for the title of "World's Most Dysfunctional Sporting Organisation".

In fact, when you reflect on issues such as the Shakoor Rana-Mike Gatting affair, the management of ball tampering, the belated response to match-fixing and corruption, the Zimbabwe touring issue, the format for the Champions Trophy and the botched 2003 World Cup, it wasn't difficult to guess where this one was going.

It was just that no one imagined quite how daft they could be.

In the field of administrative incompetence, ulterior agendas and politicking of the worst kind, the ICC have confirmed their position as an industry leader and could yet prove worthy of their own reality television series.

For all that, the bigger concern is that the Murali Law again highlighted the shifting forces within the world body, and the noticeable influence of the subcontinental-bloc vote - which comprises four of the 10 test-playing nations.

Bangladesh may not have a great cricket team, but the reasons behind their rushed emergence as a test-playing nation are far easier to understand when put alongside this week's decision on bowling actions.

It just makes you wonder what might happen next: Could Salim Malik be reinstalled as a match referee? How long until ball-tampering is legalised? Will Ian Meckiff begin legal proceedings against Cricket Australia?

And what about bowlers such as Daniel Vettori or England's Ashley Giles, who always operate within the laws in the hope that those who don't will be exposed and removed from the game?

It's difficult to escape the conclusion now that New Zealand Cricket and others will be effectively forced to coach their up-and-coming young bowlers in the art of throwing, and in the best way to exploit the 15 degrees now allowed.

The only problem will be finding someone who can explain the complexities of the "doosra" to the next Academy intake at Lincoln.

Murali, at least, should have no problem finding some extra work.