By
Girish Menon
As
the brickbats from aficionados of Test cricket kept piling on the abject Indian
cricket team at the Oval yesterday, I was pleasantly amused by Dhoni's comment
at the press conference following the Indian surrender. He stated, as quoted on
Cricinfo, "Don't be so
jealous of IPL". It made me ponder if Dhoni and his teammates have affected their revenge in
such a cold blooded and undetectable manner.
Given
India 's quick and abject
defeats in two consecutive series in England ,
which county chief will have the gumption to bid to host India 's next Test match. The ECB
have been running an auction and handing out Tests to the highest bidder.
County grounds like the Oval hoped to attract the 'brown pound' in order to
make a profit. With India 's
capitulation I doubt if future visits by the Indian team will attract the
demand that we have seen recently.
The
counties may hope to attract the 'white pound' to compensate for the Indian
diaspora's absence. But cricket as a sport is dwindling in popularity as the
coffers of most counties will reveal.
Indian
advertisers might also be mad at the team's performances as the 'brown
eyeballs' would be switching channels to avoid the shambles put up by Dhoni's
men. They may henceforth demand the negation of 'home advantage' and creation
of pitches that suit Dhoni's men. Thus match fixing, frowned upon by the ICC,
may make a re-entry in the form of scripted matches all in the name of
entertainment.
In
the process, Dhoni's men would have wreaked sweet revenge not only on the
lovers of Test cricket and the ICC but also on Andersen. For after all, what
will his record as England's highest wicket taker be worth, if Test cricket is
dead and the only records worth mentioning are set in the IPL?