India-Pakistan, England cricket chiefs and sport’s moral compass
The ECB will be grateful that it has not yet had cause to reach for its moral compass in the India-Pakistan conflict, writes Ed Warner.
I was in Paris at the 2022 Wheelchair Rugby Euros when Russia invaded Ukraine. The very next day’s results show Russia beating Poland 1-0. This in a sport in which each team typically racks up 50 tries. The Poles had forfeited the match in protest at the invasion.
In a post on Twitter (now X), World Wheelchair Rugby stated: “It is most unfortunate that Poland has withdrawn from the game against Russia on February 25 2022 due to the complicated situation related to the ongoing events in Ukraine.”
Complicated? Events? At the time, there seemed no moral dilemma at all. And yet Switzerland went on to play, and beat, Russia on the final day of the tournament. The world governing body had decided not to turf out the team representing the aggressor nation, and the Swiss were content to fulfil the fixture. Would both make the same decisions today? I suspect not.
A niche pursuit like wheelchair rugby will never create a global ripple, but the complexities of political and social conflicts cut across all sports, from war to religion, doping to gender.
A “situation” (to use the WWR terminology back in 2022) may appear cut and dried to you, but there is not just one moral compass in global production and, anyway, a variety of forces – monetary ones to the fore – can easily swing needles away from true north.
When the floodlights went out on cricket’s Indian Premier League last week, physical risk from the reignited conflict over Kashmir was the proximate cause. Both India and Pakistan suspended their prestige T20 tournaments.
Tension between the two nations has dogged the sport’s competition schedule for years, yet global chiefs have found workarounds that might offend one’s sense of sporting fairness but have managed to keep Indian TV money flowing. As expected, broadcaster demands have driven a solution for the IPL’s resumption now too.
Making a habit of sitting in the sunshine watching county cricket, the IPL’s suspension coincided with another bucolic day for me in the stands at Hove. There was speculation that returning English players might suddenly be available for the next round of Championship matches.
The suggestion, too, that the England and Wales Cricket Board might offer to squeeze the remaining dozen IPL matches into an already crowded English summer season. How to win friends and influence people, or simply generate a revenue windfall.
Contrast the ECB’s supposed offer with the UAE’s refusal to host the completion of the Pakistan Super League for fear of being seen to take political sides against India. I doubt, though, that it would have said no to the IPL had it been asked to step into its hosting breach.
There is no unambiguous villain in the decades-old conflict between India and Pakistan. No Putin-esque figure to rally opinion against and no grounds, at present, for dropping either nation as an opponent.
England hosted Pakistan for T20 internationals last year. India’s stars arrive for a five-Test series starting on 20 June. There will be talk of enhanced security measures around the matches, for sure, and possibly a conversational overhang from the disrupted IPL.
An England-India series is as lucrative as the Ashes. The ECB will be grateful, then, that so far in this current “situation” it has not had cause to reach for its moral compass.
And the first shall be last #1
The Premier League season is dribbling to its conclusion. All three clubs promoted last year are being relegated and the champions were nailed on many weeks ago.
There are so many European places on offer that broadcasters will at least have something to try and gee viewers up about over the final two rounds of matches. Eleven teams for eight places based on league position (or seven if Crystal Palace win the FA Cup), with a hierarchy of Uefa competition status that matters too. Plus, of course, either Tottenham or Manchester United will qualify for Europe via their Europa League final, in spite of dismal Premier League standings.
Where most seasons the Premier League sustains jeopardy well beyond most of its major European counterparts, this has not been the case this time around. However, although the promoted clubs were always favourites for the drop, it’s fair to say that Liverpool’s canter to the top was not widely expected last August. The Prem continues to deliver unpredictability.
Twenty First Group recently published a study showing that the Premier League is becoming more unpredictable. Omar Chaudhuri, its chief intelligence officer, based his conclusion on the low correlation of clubs’ points per game season to season.
He writes: “Leagues can’t affect how the cards fall in a season, but strategic choices around revenue distribution and financial regulations can help grow jeopardy and value for all in the long term.”
And the first shall be last #2
The Uefa final line-ups are set for its trio of competitions, each of which began for the first time with the new Swiss model of an initial league of 36 teams.
The Champions League final sees the team that finished fourth in that league (Inter Milan) play the one that came 15th (Paris Saint-Germain), the Europa League third (United) v fourth (Spurs) and in the Conference League first (Chelsea) takes on 15th (Real Betis).
By now, those initial league fixtures last autumn are a hazy memory, but the success of a pair of 15th-placed teams in making their finals makes a mockery of the new system that’s designed to shoe-horn in more clubs.
Memo to all for next season (including Manchester City): just make it into the top 24, even if scraping in means an extra round of knockout fixtures.
Fight Director
Boxing may get a bad rep at the top end of the sport, but it has long been a force for social good. Congratulations to the Mayor of Kensington and Chelsea, a London borough which includes some of the most deprived communities in the capital, for last weekend’s white collar boxing fundraiser to tackle mental health issues.
Trained by Fit for Life Youth, the fighters in the 10 bouts even included Will “The Magnificent Mayor” Lane himself. I’m proud to be chair of derivatives exchange LMAX, a business with a well-exercised social conscience that is headquartered in K&C.
We fielded five boxers, with a special shout-out to board member and finance director Grant “The Bone and Number Cruncher” Pomeroy. Punching for Purpose!
Ed Warner is chair of GB Wheelchair Rugby and writes his sport column at sportinc.substack.com