Nepal rise to top tier: Yet another side joins fray to strengthen Asia’s clout in world cricket

A team which was in Division Five of world cricket a decade back, Nepal stormed into the top tier recently with an easy victory over Papua New Guinea and gained One-Day International (ODI) status. With this, the number of South Asian teams who have the status to play ODIs has gone up to six.

Though there have been divided viewpoints over Nepal’s inclusion as a ODI team, there is no denying the fact that the entry of the Himalayan country in the club will thicken the clout of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) when it comes to taking on the camp comprising Australia, England and New Zealand.

BCCI has always stood by new teams

But the BCCI has also done its part in encouraging the Associates to ride up the ladder in world cricket. The Indian cricket board had opened its training facilities to Nepal in the wake of its devastating earthquake in 2015.

India will also be hosting Afghanistan for the latter’s first ever Test match in June. India was also the first team against which teams like Zimbabwe (1992) and Bangladesh (2000) made their Test debuts. Also, the BCCI had earned a name in 1991 when South Africa made their return to international cricket by playing a ODI series versus India.

In 1996, when teams like Australia and West Indies refused to play in Sri Lanka fearing terror attacks, it was again India who agreed to see a combined team of Indian and Pakistani players to play a goodwill game in the island nation.

The end result of these goodwill gestures has seen other regional cricket boards throwing their weights behind the BCCI when it comes to dealing with the white lobby in the International Cricket Council (ICC) in matters like restructuring the international cricket rights. The Asian cricket boards, despite having issues with the BCCI over bilateral ties at times, have shown solidarity with the latter while locking horns with the non-Asians. And the BCCI has wisely conducted itself to extend a helping hand to the new entrants.

In Africa, nobody cared about Kenya’s fall

Just compare the Asian scenario with that in Africa. The Kenya team was once seen as the next big thing in international cricket after they made the semi-finals of the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, losing to Sourav Ganguly’s India. As a team that made its ODI debut in the 1996 World Cup in the subcontinent, Kenya had shown an impressive rise in the next seven years.

It had hosted a four-nation tournament in 1999, ICC Champions Trophy in 2000 besides a couple of World Cup games in 2003 and even featured in international series regularly till 2003-04. But in another decade’s time, Kenya – the team that looked favourites to play Tests – was stripped of its ODI status after a string of poor performances. We never heard of Kenya again.

Do South Africa help African cricketing sides?

Though Kenya had its share of responsibilities for such a decline, something that one of their star players Asif Karim regretted deeply, one cannot also ignore the fact that Kenya did not have a helping hand like the BCCI to uplift them. The biggest cricketing side in Africa – South Africa – has not been as charitable as the BCCI in helping other sides of the region to come of age and compete on the world stage.

The South African cricket board has come under heavy criticism from various quarters in recent years for allegedly failing to manage its own cricket and players but it has also not helped other cricketing sides like Zimbabwe and Kenya in cricketing terms. Former coach of Zimbabwe, Makhaya Ntini – an ex-fast bowler from South Africa – had slammed his home country for not doing enough for the development of cricket in Zimbabwe who have been struggling for years now because of myriad factors. He also said that after taking over as Zimbabwe’s coach, he came to hear that the South Africans were not keen on playing in the country which had left him distraught.

The South African cricket board was also criticised recently for opting for a four-day Test with Zimbabwe for it was not monetarily rewarding to play against a low-ranked team and even some of the former greats of the country did not approve of this approach by Cricket South Africa (CSA). Namibia is one cricketing side which acknowledges the help it gets from CSA but it is yet to cover some distance before making a full appearance on the world stage.

The BCCI is a tough business master undoubtedly but it also knows how to maintain its friends who it knows will come handy in times of need. It would never treat the new entrants like Nepal and Afghanistan and make use of their talents to promote cricket as a product ‘Made in India’.

The BCCI isn’t concerned by the rise of other T20 leagues posing a threat to the Indian Premier League (IPL) because it knows the IPL has already made a market and neither does it offend any country (except Pakistan with which things are far too serious) by not picking their players. The IPL nowadays features players from Afghanistan and even Nepal and the smaller countries would never complain about the tournament eclipsing the variants being played on their soil. The BCCI has put in place a business model which is beneficial for the lesser countries and through its benevolent stands, the Indian board ensures that their loyalty doesn’t diminish.

Other cricket boards that are seen as the regional powers need to take a leaf out of the BCCI’s book in their own interest. Just like the emancipation of Afghanistan and Nepal add to the BCCI’s clout, those boards also require to fight for the Associates in their neighbourhood to strengthen their own influence and challenge the Indian board’s authority in the world of cricket.

Here is how Nepal earned the ODI status:

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