Dean Jones thinks Double Standard...

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I wish other Aussies was as honest as him. Salut to him…

India tour go-ahead a double standard - Local News - Sport - Cricket - The Canberra Times

India tour go-ahead a double standard
CRICKET
18/09/2008 7:13:00 AM
Cricket Australia is doing the politically and financially expedient thing by sending the Australian team to India.
They’ve been ticking all the boxes, sending Ricky Ponting to Canberra to briefings with the Foreign Minister and getting ‘‘independent advice’’ on security matters there.

They know they need the team to tour India because of the massive dollars on offer (after all they’ve got to pay their players) and the political sway India now holds over the game.

They just need some backers for their decision.

My problem with this is that it suggests double standards, the complaint Pakistan has raised so vehemently in the last few days.

By touring India we are saying that bombs going off in one country are a deal breaker, but not in another. We shouldn’t be surprised by this attitude though.

Australian showed its hand back in 2005 when it went ahead with the Ashes tour of England just weeks after 52 people were killed in the London bombings.

Australia will tour England and India just after bombs go off, but won’t go near Pakistan for the same reason.

Does that sound like double standards to you?

The reason why this is such a headache for Australia is that it can’t afford to take a stand on player safety in India.

I speak from quite a bit of experience in regards to India. My next trip will be my 91st.

And there is reason to be concerned about security there, particularly in Dehli, where the latest bomb went off.

Through my role as an executive director of the Indian Cricket League, I know we have major headaches with security there.

But in terms of politics and finances, Australia is in a bind.

More than 70per cent of the world’s cricket turnover is now generated in India.

So they’re the boss now and the boss tells you what to do. We just have to piggyback on their coattails, which is what they’ve been doing to us and England for a century.

If India got to the same stage as Pakistan, would we still tour?

I think they’d still go.

This is not to say that the situation in India is the same as in Pakistan.

I’ve been to Pakistan 28 times, including as a player and a commentator, but I’m prepared to admit that I’ve started to feel a bit jittery about going back.

When there are bombs going off as frequently as they are, when Afghanistan is at war over the border and when a major political leader is assasinated, as Benazir Bhutto was last year, you’d be mad not to consider your position.

Certainly when I commentate there I make sure I know where the teams are staying and I go somewhere else, because they might be the targeted ones, not me.

But if, after consideration, it’s deemed fine to tour an India troubled by terrorism, CA should then ask itself if it has a responsibility to send a team to Pakistan.

I commentated on the historic Pakistan v India series a couple of years ago, the first time India toured there in 20 years.

Pakistan did a brilliant job with security and you could see how good cricket was for the people. They were able to enjoy the series and not worry about the problems of their country.

Let me finish with a couple of hypotheticals.

What happens if there’s another bomb blast in India before the Aussies leave?

What happens if there’s a blast while they’re there?

And let’s ask ourselves these same hypotheticals but regarding Pakistan.

My bet is that if we were in Lahore, Pakistan, and a bomb went off, we’d be on the first flight home.

But India? I’m tipping we’d find an excuse to stay.

Dean Jones played 54 Test matches and 164 one-day internationals for Australia between 1984 and 1994

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It's double standard at their best. They always mention killing of Benazir as something that has never ever happened in another country! Benazir was an opposition leader, not a sitting Prime Minister. No head of state has ever been killed in a terror attack in Pakistan.

Our neighbors to the south have failed to protect not one but three prime ministers (heads of state) - Rajeev, Indira and Mohandaas Gandhi - all murdered in public.

I rest my case.

Ek sawal
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wat abt Zia-ul-Haq .......

but ....... any wayz ......
thats double standard at its best from Aussies.......

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He was murdered? :nessy:

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Officially that death was cited to a fault in the plane he was flying in, by the amreekiz.

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Please do not....because you are way...I mean way off the mark.

Mahatma Gandhi was killed by a Hindu
Indira Gandhi was killed by Sikhs
Rajiv Gandhi was killed by Tamils

None of these perpetrators had any grievances against the Western World unlike the extremists/terrorists in Pakistan. So foreigners (the Australians in this case) have nothing to fear from them. As a matter of fact, there has hardly ever been any organized terrorist attacks aimed at Gora foreigners in India unlike in Pakistan (remember **Daniel Pearl **for Gods sakes).

"Bomb blasts in India" AND "Bomb blasts in Pakistan" is not an APPLE to APPLE comparison from a westerner's perspective.

The Aussies may still have ulterior motives in their willingness to tour India, but I think it is DUMB for anybody to compare the security situation in India with that of Pakistan. From a geo-political aspect, Pakistan is the epicenter of action in the post-911 world, India is NOT.

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My Dear Some1 of course its not APPLE to APPLE comparison its $ to $ comparison

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More likely rupee to rupee comparison and its exchange value.

~*~ Time Pass June 2012 ~*~
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I apologize for over estimating your intellect.

My friend, the point I made was that providing security for a person or group of people is way better in Pakistan than in India. When Pakistanis know that a certain person (a president or PM) or group of people are to be protected, then their record shines way better than the Indians.

THREE heads of state!!!

Comprende amigo?

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Re: Dean Jones thinks Double Standard...

not the one to get into nitpicking but just to set things straight

mahatma gandhi was not head of state in any form
rajiv gandhi was not pm when he was bombed

only indira gandhi was Pm when she was assasinated

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You all can argue as much as you can and in the end no one probably is going to agree with the other one.

The bottom line is the some countires never wanted to tour Pakistan because the environment off the field was not according to their likings. Lets not forget the fact the playing conditions often were also not what they wanted but then thats always the choice of the home board.

Some of these countries adopted this mindset during 80’s but the problem was that they have no way of avoiding touring Pakistan. All such teams needed an excuse not to tour Pakistan, so anecdotally I guess it is safe to say that the underlying reason for teams not touring Pakistan was never the security.

Here are some comments from some well known critics on the mindset of these countries.

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Buddy, your knowledge of Indian socio-politics comes across as flippant at best.

First of all you talk about the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.....that happened SIXTY YEARS ago for Christ's sake...and technically he was not even a "Head Of State" at that time. And as Bitter says above, even Rajiv Gandhi was only an Opposition leader at the time of his killing.

You can spin your argument any way you want in order to escape from the back door, but the fact remains that those reponsible for the assasinations of Indian leaders bore no grudge against foreigners (Western World)......and that is what this thread is about.

I will reteirate - the Aussies may have the "dollars aspect" in mind when they agreed to tour India - but from a logical point of view, there is absolutely no doubt that the security situation in India for a *gora *foreigner is still way better than in Pak.

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If "security" situation means vodka and few thumka opportunities, then I agree that situation in India is much better in India.

BTW, I was trying to find how many goras died in Pakistan before and after Daniel.....

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When you cannot win an argument, trivialize it.

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Re: Dean Jones thinks Double Standard...

As for foregin players not getting endorsments/contracts in Pakistan, well, I remember Jeff Thompson Shaving Cream back in the early eighties.

Funguy, to set the record straight, Liaqat Ali Khan was assassinated when he was Prime Minister.

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Exactly by ignoring second part of my post.

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Big deal....the 2nd part of your post.

Come on man....in your country even your dear friends the "Chinese" have not been spared the wrath of the extremists - what to talk about the safety of the goras.

If memory serves....during a New Zealand series....a bus full of "French" engineers were attacked.

How many times have the Embassies been attacked in Pakistan.....

How much more proof do you want ?

Listen....what I am saying is not exactly a revelation. For starters, a vast majority of Pakistanis have negative perception of the Western World (UNLIKE in India). A country where there is a market for Bin Laden posters and where his pictures are displayed on the back of trucks....and most importantly....where Bin Laden is most probably ACTUALLY LIVING......................that country cannot be compared to INDIA on security.

Full Stop.

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Exactly.. it is not a revelation. The world knew about it since 2001. But still teams use to tour Pakistan even after 2001. However while touring they realized there is another problem besides Pakistan's flat pictes and that was the feeling of confinement or what was referred by Duncan Fletcher as Cabin Fever. Once they realized that, thought of touring Pakistan next time became like going to Kala pani jail.

I can't blame teams for not touring Pakistan because "officially" they are scared of the security situation.

My only question is that since teams will definitely keep on using this security situation excuse for next as many years as possible so to avoid touring boring Pakistan, what is ICC plans to do to counter this situation and for that matter what is PCB planning to do? Are they going to keep on waiting & hoping every season for teams to tour Pakistan, arranging security briefing sessions for foreign security evaluation teams and then getting a letter from the visiting teams that they won't be touring?

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Yes, the French engineers, I agree I forgot.

In a way you are right. Until the silent majority who does not side with OBL/Taliban mentality, who does not support the current political parties Pakistan image will remain like that and will get further tainted by the continuous bombardment of anti-Pakistan articles regardless of whether OBL was dead in 2003 or 2005 (many non-US "coalition" officers statements came out) and people will keep believing that OBL lives in Pakistan.

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What a comparison you make my friend....Daniel pearl, he was a reporter who may have angered someone by reporting something wrong and don't forget he was an Americaaaaan. What you expect...We are talking about cricketers here.....