Anyone following developments in the cricket world in the recent few months would be aware that we are standing on the cusp of a historic divide within the game, much bigger even, than the Kerry Packer backed World Series saga of the 80s. All the shows of wealth and power and bickering and acrimony and millions of dollars in endorsements have ensured that cricket will split into a rebel format and a... non-rebel format.
You guessed it, I'm talking about Aussie Rules Cricket (ARC) and um... well, Cricket.
ARC is somewhat similar to cricket, with a few of the basic rules modified by the Aussies. It wouldn't be called Aussie Rules otherwise, would it? For those of you unfamiliar with this exciting breakaway format, here are some of the new rules:
1)The Australian captain is the arbiter of all on field decisions. All appeals are referred to him and he uses his vast cricketing knowledge and years of experience to make the final decision grounded firmly in justice and fairness, but also, more importantly, on what suits his team best.
2)The Umpires' roles are largely symbolic and their only use is to rubber-stamp decisions made by the Australian captain.
Note: There is one exception to this rule. The Umpires are allowed to make independent decisions only when they are, what would commonly be known in the old-fashioned cricket world as, "wrong" in favour of the Aussies. Purely hypothetical examples of this include Ricky Ponting nicking Ganguly down the leg side to be caught by Dhoni and being given not out, Andrew Symonds getting a thick edge on a leg-cutter from Ishant Sharma to be caught behind and given not out and Andrew Symonds once again being reprieved by the Third Umpire this time, off a stumping appeal when his foot was clearly in the air as the bails were being removed*.
*Needless to say, Symonds went on to make a big hundred.... hypothetically speaking, that is.
3)There is no such thing as "sledging". "Exchanging Plesantries" will be the commonly accepted phrase, though some of the harsher and better established Channel 9 crictics will be allowed to get away with calling it Mental Disintegration. Though only in a nostalgic and endearing way. The exchange of plesantries allows the Australian team to raise extremely pertinent social topics such as shagging the opposition batsman's wife/mother/girlfriend/sister/pets and other flesh relatives. Question can also be raised about the legitimacy of the batsman's parents' marriage. Nothing racist, however, can ever be uttered... because that's just plain wrong. Anything the opposition player says in his native language will be assigned the English racially insensitive phrase that bears the closest phonetic resemblance**. And that as we know, is just plain wrong and therefore is in breach of the rules.
**Needless to say, teri maaki went on to make a big hundred.
The list goes on.
So watch this new fantastic league, as its righteous superstars contrive to acheive bigger and better world records, because Aussie Rules! Remember, after everything is said and done, this is ultimately a gentleman's game... its just not cricket.