Australia vs Pakistan vs The Spirit of the Game

My post on http://sdptk.blogspot.com, August 20, 2010.

Sydney - In a bizarre twist, Cricket Australia has accused Pakistan of undermining the spirit of the game. Acting as Cricket Australia's spokesman and sometimes the president, John Howard released a statement on behalf of Cricket Australia. According to him, Pakistan acted against the spirit of the game in the last Test match the two teams played against each other (Headingley, 21 - 24 July, 2010).

"As self-proclaimed unofficial president of the ICC and Cricket Australia, I, John Howard, would like to point out that Muru... Murril... Marrili... whatever his name is, he is a chucker. I have also received information through Twitter from our most celebrated son Ricky Ponting about the Headingley Test match between our mighty Australians and Pakistan's mismatched bunch of hobknobs.

"The Legend Ponting himself stated that Pakistan had acted against the spirit of the game and hoped that action would be taken against them for this. He stated that an example was made of that one chap from Ceylon who bowled that wide against that other chap from India and that Pakistan should be punished next. However, now that I think about it, that message does seem to be a fair bit longer than Twitter does allow, so I might have read it on Facebook, I don't know."

Howard, who believes that Sri Lanka is still called Ceylon and also that Australia is still a Brittish colony, asked for his fellow ICC board members to act apon the information he has provided them. After waffling on for 15 minutes about how Twitter is more restrictive than Facebook - during this time, the press took it apon themselves to break for lunch - he came to the point the whole press room was waiting for.

Howard claimed that Pakistan's actions were against the "rules and laws of the spirit of the game of cricket" (which is a publication only available in Howard's personal library we suspect) and should be addressed by the ICC. He claimed "Pakistan acted against the rules and laws of the spirit of the game of cricket in the last test. By having a negative attitude towards Australia, they decided that it would be suitable to rather beat us than let us win. It was quite apparent that at least two or maybe even three or four or perhaps even five, but not more than seven or six, were in on this. The whole team shouldn't be punished, but an example should be made of the captain and those involved. I can't tell you who they are, because I battle with foreign names."

When asked to comment on the statements, the ICC's spokesman replied, "We have recently installed Norton Anti-Spam, so we are unable to receive any emails at all except from PharmaMaster. However, should John Howard send us any emails, we trust that Norton's Anti-Spam filter will reject it as it did with his nomination for ICC president.
"We would also like to point out that we are in no way linked to John Howard and any such claims from him will be dealt with by our lawyers. We would also like Mr Howard to return our casserole dish. No if you'll excuse me, I am late for the weekly ICC Board Members' Laser Tag event."

The Pakistan Cricket Board could not be reached for comment as all politicians were requested to be in Parliament for an emergency meeting at the time of going to print.