Bill Frindall, world's most respected cricket statistician, is not taking the Tsunami relief fund match in to his records. He is not going to include the Super Series Test and ODIs scheduled to be played between World XI and Australian XI either. And he has the reasons to defy ICC's dictat.
Infact ICC's decision of granting official status to Tsunami relief fund match had not gone well with the statisticians the world over. Most of the statisticians are against this ruling if the views expressed by the members of Association of Cricket Statisticians (England) on the internet forum mean anything.
However the ACS could not take any hard stand against ICC's decision - for the reasons better known to itself. Also some renowned statisticians did not take long to accept ICC's ruling despite being fully aware that it defies all logic and common-sense. May be some commercial reasons were also responsible for this. Those, who fell in the line with ICC, expressed the view that being the governing body ICC is free to do whatever it thinks is right.
Yours truly is totally against this view. Even if you buy this arguement, then how come these statisticians flouted ICC's ruling over first-class status to matches played in South Africa by rebellion sides. Wasn't ICC the governing body then? Clearly there is something more than what meets the eyes.
Frindall, as he has always done, didn't mince a word while criticising ICC for its ineptitude. Playfair Cricket Annual is the best selling cricket annual in the world and in its 2005 edition, Frindall, as the editor, has not included the Tsunami relief match alongwith the rain abandoned NatWest match between West Indies and New Zealand last year. The NatWest match was a strange case as ICC flouted its own rulebook in deciding when a match actually commences.
This is what Frindall wrote in his editorial for the Playfair-"That they (ICC) are proposing to confuse matters further by giving Test match status to a ‘super test’ between Australia and the Rest later this year beggars belief. For a decade after the 1970 England v Rest of the World series ‘Wisden’s records bore a grumbling appendix of those five games – and that rubber at least had the excuse of replacing a series cancelled for political reasons. Logic dictates that ‘international’ records should be exactly that – ‘contests between nations’. Perhaps a compromise would be to segregate matches involving conglomerate teams in to a separate Super Test compartment. For the same reason, the recent Tsunami Appeal game between Asian and World XI in Melbourne should not be included in the annals of Limited-Overs Internationals – and is excluded from records in this publication. Exceptionally admirable though it was in conception, the game was little more than an exhibition thrash. While enjoying the occasion hugely, none of the participants, and there were rather too many, seemed to care a hoot about the result. Another piece of gross meddling produced the crass decision to regard the toss as the start of a match. This is contrary to Law 16, which clearly states that the umpire’s call of play heralds the start."
Charlie Watt, Australia's renowned statistician, has also taken the stand on similar lines. These two have made it clear that they are not going to include such matches in their matches at any cost. ICC is feeling the heat, it is clear from the fact that ICC issued a media release clarifying its position.Earlier it was not even bothered to reply when several statisticians approached it.
This issue is not over yet. You will hear and read a lot on this subject in the progress to the Super Series matches. Keep looking at this place for the updates.
