ICC going after YouTube videos - Damn them!

Now this is fucking ridiculous. In the wake of Viacom suing YouTube, the ICC, thinking that its actually an important organization, has ordered YouTube to remove WC cricket footage. Bastards! They now join my infamous "Omar hates cricketers" list.

The ICC has ordered YouTube, the online video-sharing website, to remove World Cup clips claiming copyright infringement. The ICC and the rights holder to the event, the Global Cricket Corporation, took the action after hundreds of World Cup clips appeared on the site.

"We are here to protect the commercial broadcast rights for the ICC and GCC and there is an issue here," Christopher Stokes, the chief executive of online rights protection agency NetResult, which represents the ICC, told Media Guardian.

Go Stoke your balls, fucker! Now the ICC are starting a dangerous precedent. They're actually messing with the fans now. This cannot be good. Even though the ICC has the legal right to do all this, what exactly could they lose by having cricket videos on the Internet? It's good for the game, awesome for the community, spreads the word, and great for us bloggers.

Put blogging aside for a minute, It's great entertainment too as I'm youtubing cricket all the time watching highlights and such of past games. And its past games. I've never heard of the ICC peddling footage of old games. Are they planning on making more money from this? Fuck you if are! This obsession with money needs to be curtailed.

Cricket was the one sport that was so untarnished by commercialism and video ownership. It's rare to find baseball and basketball clips on the net because they have been completely submerged by legality and lawsuits and all the things that make sport boring. I love the fact that if I want to see Umar Gul bowl Laxman and make him look like a fool, I can do in a second. Here it is. This is the beauty of having YouTube for us cricket fans.

YouTube was reported to have agreed to the request and the clips were gradually being removed from the site. However, one of the problems faced is that as fast as the offending clips are withdrawn, more are uploaded. A search this morning showed only a handful of clips from the Bangladesh v India game, and yet a few hours later it was dozens

Naturally. You're messing with cricket fans, and they're not going to succumb so easily. I say we get back at the ICC. Lets surface some videos of Malcolm Speed and some mammals? It's perfectly okay if they we make them on Photoshop and they look really fake. Malcolm is old and old people are offended by everything.

Andrew Miller's response is worth quoting. A snippet...

Does this game know of any other ways to shoot itself in the foot? Only three days ago it was suggested on this website that the events of the past week might serve as a wake-up call for cricket's fiscally obsessed powerbrokers. Fat chance. A game run increasingly by lawyers for lawyers, has deemed it necessary to go to war on the very online enthusiasts who can spread the word of a game whose reputation has been dragged through the mincer.

ICC charges Afridi for swinging bat at fan: Faces ban

Damn you Afridi! Here is the video which I posted just now. At first, it was thought that the ICC would not be charging Afridi, but circumstances quickly changes once Malcolm Speed saw the video footage. Here is how events unfolded. From SuperCricket...

The International Cricket Council on Tuesday angrily rejected criticism that they had failed to take any action against Shahid Afridi for trying to hit a spectator with his bat due to a fear of antagonising the Pakistanis.

Afridi was caught on television jabbing his bat at a spectator after he was dismissed for 17 in the first one-day international against South Africa at SuperSport Park, but is unlikely to face any official sanction.

"The ICC Code of Conduct says the four umpires, the team managers and the CEO of the home board can all lay a charge, but they must do so within 18 hours of the end of the match. The fact of the matter is none of these people did so," ICC media and communications manager Brian Murgatroyd said on Tuesday.

"Any decisions that are taken by ICC officials are made on the merits or otherwise of each individual situation and to suggest otherwise is misguided. I resent any implication that the ICC are biased or that we refuse to act because we want to maintain good relations with Pakistan and are afraid of antagonising them," Murgatroyd said.

Speed has five days after the match in which to react to the Afridi incident, but is currently in the Caribbean, where preparations for the World Cup have reached fever pitch.

"Malcolm Speed laid the charge against Gibbs because he felt it was appropriate to do so. If he had not done so then we were given to understand the Pakistan team manager would have acted instead," Murgatroyd explained.

"In the Afridi case, none of the other parties able to lay a charge chose to do so. Malcolm has five days to act and lay a charge if he deems it appropriate, and in all matters he reserves the right to do so."

Speed saw the video in question and promptly charged Shahid Afridi.

Afridi has been charged with a Level 3 offence under section C 2 of the Code which refers to "conduct unbecoming...which could bring (players or officials) or the game of cricket into disrepute."

If found guilty of a Level 3 offence, Afridi faces a ban of between two and four Test matches or between four and eight ODIs.

Great...If I were him, I would not appeal, but take the ban now before the World Cup begins. Afridi, you piece of.....