What's common to flaming Fords & ICC?
The answer?Simple...both refused to accept that there's a problem either with the flaming Ford or the umpires, and looked away. The result? Customers and viewers alienated, respectively!
When customers called Ford Motor Company about their flaming Fords, guess what the company told them? Call your Insurance company. Well, this non-responsive attitude in the end resulted in, till date, a recall of almost 11 million cars and trucks since 2005 because of a clear danger that the vehicles could erupt in flames without warning.
The ICC could do well to remember the flaming Ford fiasco. If they had given it a thought, they would not have backed the umpires who messed up, more so, while officiating in the cricket test at Sydney. How did the ICC spokesperson react to umpiring blunders? "The standard test match playing conditions are signed by the respective board, and the condition states that neither team has a right to object to an umpire's appointment. There is little ICC can do."
On the contrary there's a lot the ICC can and must do, if they care about cricket crazy viewers in India. They must issue a statement admitting to the blunders and also say that they would investigate thoroughly into what happened so as to clear the mess. Pronto. Else, they must face a similar scenario as the one Ford Motor company faced.
The larger lesson here? Most 'entrenched establishments' tend to ignore any information that puts them in bad light, choosing to cover up their messes by feigning ignorance. Now that will eventually lead to a huge loss of face and will also ruin any credibility they possess. On the other hand if they react with a promise to quickly try and undo what's already been done, to the extent possible, they regain their lost credibility and even more, they may be rewarded with customer loyalty.
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