Double speak

Mike Denness has now denied that he fined Sachin Tendulkar 75 per cent of his match fees for ball tampering. It is for cleaning the ball without informing the umpires of his intention, he says. The belated denial begs the question: why wasn't it issued earlier? Is this ICC's way of righting a wrong, or is Denness breaking the code of silence to assuage the growing contempt for his bungling?

Either way, it smacks of hypocrisy. For nine days both Denness and the ICC refused to admit that they were endowed with human weaknesses, that they too could make mistakes just like the players they punish so easily. It will be highly beneficial for world cricket if the ICC has learned a small lesson in humility from this imbroglio.

Humility is also something Jagmohan Dalmiya needs to practice today. His request to the ICC to extend the deadline from Friday noon to Saturday (time indeterminate) is baffling. If it's a face-saving device then Dalmiya will have made his point that he does not take kindly to time limits being imposed on him when he has the sub-continent, and the financial clout, backing him. If it's an extension of centre stage glory that he wants - after all how many will remember all this once India starts to tuck into England - an extra day will hardly make a difference. The unanimous feeling is that he's made his point and it's time to move on - tactfully and gracefully.

Dalmiya's insistence on keeping everyone on tenterhooks hardly befits him. He makes an admiral lawyer for the BCCI, but his courtroom tactics have started to resemble cheap gamesmanship. He refuses to comment on Sehwag's inclusion/exclusion, citing the possibility of the anti-corruption unit being on his trail if the team is announced before Monday morning - and in the same breath asks for an extension till Saturday. Will the bookies/match-fixers take a break on Sunday? Double speak is not the sole domain of the ICC's alone, it seems.

Double speak is also what the English team is getting and it does not deserve it. Putting it in the uncomfortable position of not knowing if it will play at Mohali is tantamount to shoddy hospitality. The ICC's position on Sehwag will not change. Nor should it, for to over-rule this decision now would be unfair to other penalised players in the past. Lord Maclaurin is thus justified in reiterating, however premature his announcements may have been, that England will not play a friendly match which is what the first Test will be if the BCCI flouts all wisdom and announces Sehwag's name in the playing eleven. For the sake of retaining public sympathy it is important that the BCCI does not change a genuine grievance into a genuine faux pas through stubbornness.

Finally, spare a thought for poor Sehwag who will be punished twice for a sin once committed. In the ensuing furore not many have stopped to think of the effects all this might be having on him. Much like the Titanic he was sailing full steam ahead, having scored a terrific 105 on his Test debut, when an insidious block of ice popped up with no warning and cut off the momentum. Indications are that he's young enough, and tough enough, to put it all behind him and come back in punching form for the second Test.

That is, if the series is not cancelled in his name.