Blast famous: Greig blitzkrieg rips BCCI, hypes biography

It seems that the only way to attract readers these days is to get the Indian cricket establishment involved in some mud-slinging. Every time a former cricketer writes a book these days, it generally has a healthy dose of incidents involving India and the Indian players. Just a simple coincidence? Guess not. The trick is simple: Get them involved and earn some valuable media time on the Indian channel and hence, build up some hype about the book in the world’s most cricket-crazy nation. The latest former cricketer to try that stunt is Tony Greig. [caption id=“attachment_11082” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Former England cricket player Tony Greig is on warpath against BCCI to advertise his upcoming biography. David Gray/Reuters”]  [/caption] The former England skipper would like to end India’s ‘domination’ if he is ever given charge of the International Cricket Council. He also dismissed the idea of having a separate window for the Indian Premier League – not that the BCCI has ever wanted one. “Number one, we have got to try and get the ICC right. We have a situation at the moment where the ICC is dominated by India. They tell Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and one or two other countries what to do and they always get the vote,” said Greig, ahead of the publication of a new biography, Tony Greig: A Reappraisal of English Cricket’s Most Controversial Captain, by David Tossell. “It’s very hard, but somehow we have got to change things at that level,” he added. Greig said there is too much cricket being played and having a separate window for the IPL would be ridiculous while players complain of burnout. “We are playing too much cricket. I would be getting all the countries from the world and saying hey listen, what is this nonsense of giving Indian domestic cricket an open window?… To give the IPL (Indian Premier League, a domestic Twenty20 competition) an open window, and reduce by two months the time available for cricketers to play around the world, in the current environment is just ridiculous… We have got to look very, very closely and make sure we do not destroy the cornerstone of the game which is Test cricket,” said the 64-year-old former all-rounder, who is now a commentator. Greig said it was unfortunate to see players such as Chris Gayle coming up with batting fireworks in the IPL while the West Indies took on Pakistan in a Test series. “It is laughable that (Chris) Gayle and (Kieron) Pollard are playing in the IPL when the West Indies are playing Pakistan – that is just ridiculous.” PTI