bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Being blunt is second nature to Ian Chappell. Even though he knows this  will hit home, the former Australian test great does not cut any slack when he says Hong Kong should never have figured in the Asia Cup, which draws to an end with tonight's final in Karachi.
'It does not do a lot of good having sides like Hong Kong playing against the top teams in the world,' Chappell says.
'The matches are one-sided and it does not benefit anyone.
'May be the only plus is that one day the Hong Kong players can tell their grand kids they played against some of the world's best cricketers.'
The twin hammerings suffered by Hong Kong - a 155-run loss to Pakistan and 256-run loss to India - in the group stages of the Asia Cup easily back-up Chappell's view that the minnows should swim in their own pool, instead of  with the sharks.
Even nature abhors this. Just look at what happened to the sturgeons gifted by China when they were put in the same tank as the barracuda at Ocean Park. In Karachi, Hong Kong's weekend cricketers were cast in the role of the sturgeon  and everyone  had a feast.
Chappell blames it on the game's administrators, mainly the International Cricket Council (ICC) - which he has us believe is the bane of his life - but on this instance, the Asian Cricket Council under whose auspices the Asia Cup comes under.
'The ICC has to be blamed for diluting standards a lot. They should have a better system in place for judging the standards of teams, rather than pitting a team like Hong Kong against India. Losing by huge margins will not benefit Hong Kong, where the players are part-time and who might not be around for a long time,' says Chappell, speaking from Singapore where he is a guest commentator with ESPN-Star Sports.
Widely regarded as one of the finest minds in the game, the 64-year-old  believes if the world governing body is keen to grow the game, then it should look at using the Twenty20 version as the vehicle to accelerate growth among the associate members.
'Rather than using the 50 overs version, I think the ICC should be looking at Twenty20 to globalise cricket,' he said. 'Even test cricket should be limited to only eight countries - even Bangladesh and Zimbabwe get pounded - and the rest of the world should play the shorter version.
'I'm not saying that they [associate members] shouldn't play the longer version, but that should be among themselves. Hong Kong should play three and four-day matches to improve their skills. But on the international stage, Hong Kong should play Twenty20.'
A Twenty20 franchise based in Hong Kong would be the way forward for smaller associate members to mingle at the highest level, Chappell insists.
'I believe they should follow the IPL franchise system,' he said.
'Perhaps Hong Kong should put forward a franchise which could include a few international stars and some local players, including youngsters. This would be better than say Hong Kong taking on Australia in a one-day game.
'Just look at how well the IPL worked. Look at how Rajasthan, captained by Shane Warne, performed. The younger guys would have benefited from having Warne around.'
Chappell played 75 tests for Australia, 30 times as captain from 1971 to 1975. A fine batsman - 5,345 test runs at an average of 42.42 - and superb first-slip fielder, the eldest of the three Chappell brothers (Greg and Trevor also played for Australia) was rated by legendary fast bowler Dennis Lillee as the finest captain he  played under.
The captain fantastic was also a rebel. He was one of the first to don the 'pyjama' - being a huge part of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket  in 1975 - and was constantly in the forefront of trying to better the players' lot. He was the bane of the establishment in his playing days, something which he continues to do today in his role as a TV pundit.
And his main bugbear is the workings - or non-working - of the ICC, which he labels as a toothless body.
'The system [ICC] does not work. It probably never worked at all. When I was playing, the England and Australian boards ran the show and it stumbled along. The same thing happens today, but the power has shifted to India,' he said.
'An Indian journalist, Sureh Menon, recently wrote that the BCCI [Board of Control for Cricket in India] runs the ICC and the Indian media runs the BCCI. That is not far from the truth.'
Chappell says if he had one wish from that genie in a bottle, he would crave for a decent body to govern world cricket.
'The game needs a better structure to run it,' he said. 'What we have at the moment is a game administered by chiefs of all the cricket nations who sit around a table. Now you can't tell me that these people don't have the interests of their own countries at heart?'
A board independent of parochial interests is what cricket deserves, according to Chappell. He hopes one day the governing body will be a mix of all interests, including the players.
'It should be well balanced, like a proper cricket team. You can't have all batsmen or all bowlers in a side. We have to get the right combination,' Chappell says.
The outspoken, but forthright Australian lamented a golden opportunity to cure the ills of world cricket was shunned by the administrators recently when they failed to properly address IPL's impact on the game.
'The ICC should have sat down with all the stakeholders - players, administrators, sponsors, television - to map out a blueprint for the game. Now we have three versions of the game, test, 50 overs and Twenty20, and I don't know how long this can go on. Something has to give,' he said.
The international cricket schedule is like an infuriatingly knotted length of hose, says Chappell. He says the Future Tours Programme, where every test country plays each other, home and away, in a six-year period, has proved unworkable.
The IPL offered the chance for the hose to be unravelled - for the international schedule to find a window for IPL that suits everybody and in the process tidy up the programming anomalies. But that chance was spurned.
'The schedule is hectic but I don't think the players can complain. They are not in a position anymore to talk about burnout. That argument was diluted with the IPL. They showed that they are not too tired to play in the IPL and if this is the case, then they should be not too tired to play test cricket, too,' Chappell says.
But he is worried that an excessive schedule could result in the players losing their edge.
'It will be worrying if they start thinking that this is just another day at the office, if they just go through the motions. To forestall this, we need a sensible schedule in place. Test cricket cannot survive on its own, neither can Twenty20,' he said.
'It's like drinking too much of the best Australian wine, which in my opinion is Penfolds Red. That would be boring. Too much of anything is bad. What world cricket needs is less quantity and more quality.'
The ICC should have sat down with all the stakeholders ... to map out a blueprint for
the game
Just one suggestion Chappell believes the ICC could have embraced to improve the game



Chappell's hostile delivery