Heard a story yesterday. Can anyone confirm?

So I have a Yahoo account and a day ago I came across a question/story about the BCCI. I am not sure as to how true this is, hopefully guys like msp can comfirm. The story goes that BCCI has effectively banned foreigners from FC cricket in the wake of the Indian series defeat vs England. Something about Joe Root scoring a debut 50. Can any one confirm/dispel the rumour?

Does that mean the upcoming Australian tour of India will be cancelled then as the Aussies will be foreigners themselves playing first class matches V Indian teams.

Its quite complicated, and perhaps a bit mis-reported.

The headline is that the BCCI haven't granted permission to a number of counties to hold pre-season training camps in India. Apart from Durham, those teams will now go to Sri Lanka.

This can be traced back to a dispute between the ECB and the BCCI over the England Performance Squad tour of India which ran parallel to the Tests. The BCCI claim that the ECB didn't obtain the correct permissions for the matches, and in particular felt that England shouldn't have allowed players from the full Test squad to play, as happened in the opening match (Root, who made 166, Morgan, Finn and Onions all played). The ECB's response is that the matches had no official status and were privately arranged (with the Dr. DY Patil Cricket Academy), had no official status and thus that the BCCI had no right to interfere.

This would seem a curious stance from the BCCI, given that they have no problems with foreign players playing in the IPL. However, I think the English media need to be a bit careful: they themselves tend to show mild annoyance when young Australian teams come to England to hone their games.

My personal view is that I have no problem with players playing around the world to get used to conditions. It can only be beneficial to the world game if players are afforded every possible opportunity to get better.

TBH its a bit pathetic that a board would try and stop a visiting team from getting the warm up matches they want and need.
I dont doubt that other boards do similar things but it was a bit rum of the Indians to try and ensure England didnt get to face any proper spin in their warm ups.

Has it really come down to stopping the opposition getting the chance to practise?

The English always do that, and the Indians also did it this time. A pretty poor strategy indeed.
Think the issue is about the ECB not getting the right permissions during the EP squad tour last year, and there is not much more to read into it.

"The right permissions"... how pathetic!

I wonder how our advance touring party is getting on? I hope they are filling in the necessary paperwork!

It indeed is very disappointing that the BCCI learns all the bad things from the bullies of the old world. But there are greater professionalizing of the game that happened there, and there is a greater focus on improving the quality of the game itself and processes are in place, but the new world bully isn't interested in those.

You are still miles behind the most successful teams in the professionalisation of the game, imo.

Probably because the BCCI doesn't really quite understand the meaning of a true sporting culture. I see no evidence of that whatsoever.

It's not something you can buy off the shelf and stick some cheap looking bells and whistles on. It's much more than that. As long as that is prevalent in your approach - it won't do much to contribute to the improvement of the overall quality of the game.

Let's face it - Australia (the young upstart) and England (the old world bully as you say) have done so much more for the game in terms of focusing on the quality of the game itself, establishing better processes and real innovations (not that rubbish created by the new world bully)... and despite all the problems and controversies... will continue to drag the rest (kicking & screaming no doubt!) along with them.

I wrote a piece about this recently, LB.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/andrew-bloxham/petty-bcci-missing-a-tric_b_2637394.html

Let me know your thoughts. The pathetic pettiness of the BCCI can be astounding at times.

That's a very well written article Fists. My sentiments exactly.

For a Board which considers itself the be the 'be all and end all' of the cricketing world - they are actually their own worst enemy and are too greedy and stubborn to realise it.

Good point about the prohibition imposed on young Indian players participating in the County scene. That simply beggars belief! That has to be the greatest example of the petty and childlike attitude of the BCCI; which fortunately for England (and unfortunately for India) will only hinder themselves when they go on future tours.

Fists that is an interesting article indeed. I don't think Indian cricket gains anything by not letting their cricketers from playing in county cricket. I also don't think not letting young players from other countries to undertake tours of India would also benefit anyone. Of course I have said many times that the BCCI stands on the DRS isn't doing the team any good.
But said that, I have to say the practice of denial of meaningful tour games to touring sides is certainly not an Indian innovation. England have been doing it for years, and I have to say I haven't seen so much of anger and condemnation then.

Far more worrying is the recent decision by BCCI to deny england meaningful opposition in test matches

It is really bad on the part of B.C.C.I . With Such decisions cricket will lose its transparency. Another step towards the already ongoing orchestration of prostitution of global cricket carried out by the BCCI. Disgraceful state of affairs.

A valuable read. The ECB is no holy cow either!. http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/current/story/604267.html

They not only poach Ireland players, but also prevent the associate board ataining some decent financial background. All for the growth of the game!!!.

We don't poach Ireland players, msp. The Ireland players, with aspirations of Test cricket decide to make themselves available for England.

Of course if the ECB can control even the kind of match possibilities in Ireland, test status will always remain far away from Ireland. Of course the BCCI too will have their vote bank interests in mind.
At the end of the day, they are all the same.

Thanks for the feedback, gents.

Seems it has more of a deep rooted establishment than I initially thought. Still, very petty on the whole.

The ABC Commentary team will not be travelling to India to cover the Tests now.

Something about not getting the right approval. They were offered "VIP status" though... but since they would not be allowed to even give a wrap-up of each day's play... they told the 'establishment' "No thanks!"

Jim Maxwell (who kind of annoys me anyway) was doing his best not to sound disappointed at the situation.

Slightly off topic; I've just found this half-baked gem: http://www.pavilionopinions.com/2012/04/ponting-to-retire-and-run-for-pope.html

Linebreaker wrote:The ABC Commentary team will not be travelling to India to cover the Tests now.

Something about not getting the right approval. They were offered "VIP status" though... but since they would not be allowed to even give a wrap-up of each day's play... they told the 'establishment' "No thanks!"

Jim Maxwell (who kind of annoys me anyway) was doing his best not to sound disappointed at the situation.

Slightly off topic; I've just found this half-baked gem: http://www.pavilionopinions.com/2012/04/ponting-to-retire-and-run-for-pope.html

Haven't come across it till now, what is the issue LB? the buggers want more money? Very unfortunate indeed. Any chance of a TMS like resolution? All India Radio provides such 3rd rate commentary these days anyways, and don't even send a team to the ground, even when the match is played in India.
On the larger point of the debate, that the BCCI is a big bad bully, I agree with everyone here, only that the others aren't much better, and that is one reason why they won't confront the other.

Linebreaker wrote:

Slightly off topic; I've just found this half-baked gem: http://www.pavilionopinions.com/2012/04/ponting-to-retire-and-run-for-pope.html

On the same basis that the "horseburgers" in the Leics supermarket have been found to contain Richard III's steed...

msp83 wrote:

Linebreaker wrote:The ABC Commentary team will not be travelling to India to cover the Tests now.

Something about not getting the right approval. They were offered "VIP status" though... but since they would not be allowed to even give a wrap-up of each day's play... they told the 'establishment' "No thanks!"

Jim Maxwell (who kind of annoys me anyway) was doing his best not to sound disappointed at the situation.

Slightly off topic; I've just found this half-baked gem: http://www.pavilionopinions.com/2012/04/ponting-to-retire-and-run-for-pope.html

Haven't come across it till now, what is the issue LB? the buggers want more money? Very unfortunate indeed. Any chance of a TMS like resolution? All India Radio provides such 3rd rate commentary these days anyways, and don't even send a team to the ground, even when the match is played in India.
On the larger point of the debate, that the BCCI is a big bad bully, I agree with everyone here, only that the others aren't much better, and that is one reason why they won't confront the other.

Yes, it's all about money apparently. Our "8c/day" doesn't quite cover what the BBCI was asking for.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:

Linebreaker wrote:

Slightly off topic; I've just found this half-baked gem: http://www.pavilionopinions.com/2012/04/ponting-to-retire-and-run-for-pope.html

On the same basis that the "horseburgers" in the Leics supermarket have been found to contain Richard III's steed...

He's practically my neigh bour

Did they really prove it was his Romanians?

Yeah in as much as one can. The body was buried exactly where the historical sources said it would be, its the right date range, its the right age , he has a back defect, died in battle (including post mortem wounds) and there was a DNA match to living descendants.

Obvioulsy the BCCI would disregard this evidence as flawed and prefer Alim Dar to make a call based on what he didnt see during a split second he had his eyes shut.

I bet that back defect was due to his unorthodox treatment of those Bloody City Council Inspectors.

Seems the ABC radio debacle wasn't really down to the BCCI after all.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-australia-2013/content/current/story/604850.html

Dont tell me they submitted the wrong bank details?

msp83 wrote:Seems the ABC radio debacle wasn't really down to the BCCI after all.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-australia-2013/content/current/story/604850.html

Test Match Sofa?

They can't be serious!

Here it's all free-to-air and I'm not sure how much we charge foreign broadcasters to call matches from here. Certainly not the $800,000 for 'use of facilities' on top of the $20,000/match which the BCCI was asking for.