One of the advantages of being a successful professional is that people listen in on your ideas, good or bad.
John Buchanan, Australia’s passing coach, has a brand new idea to transform world cricket.

Just when you thought the cricketing world was just about getting back to normal again, things settling down nicely, England winning a couple of games, a thrilling series between Pakistan and South Africa under way, and the World Cup just around the corner, it felt like some of the controversies of last year, such as drugs bans and then first forfeiture of a game of cricket in 129 years had been conveniently forgotten, had been rightly swept under the carpet forgotten about. Well, Darrell Hair has put the kibosh on that by announcing that he’s now suing the ICC and …read more

Well, Darrell Hair for one thing. After he was spectacularly given the arse for his involvement in Ovalgate, it seems the ICC still haven’t quite figured out what to do with him, or even how to treat its members. It’s about time the ICC grew a backbone, rather than fannying around so much. If after the trial they decided that Hair wasn’t fit to do his job, they should have just sacked him, end of story. If they thought he was fit to do his job, he should be umpiring as usual, end of story. But instead, they’ve ended …read more

It seems whatever the peeps at the ICC were smoking has run out, and they’ve started thinking a little more clearly again. (I almost said “started talking sense again”, but that would have been wildly inaccurate.)
Thank God that’s over with. (For now, at least.)
(I seem to be justifying a lot of things I say with bracketed subnotes. And use many rhetorical questions. Isn’t that weird?)

One of the real barriers to the effective globalisation of cricket is the disparity in the quality of the teams. Australia have been the best for ages, England, Pakistan and India are close behind, with South Africa, New Zealand and Sri Lanka bringing up the rest of the best. Zimbabwe, the West Indies and Bangladesh are struggling further down.
But therein lies one of the problem – there are only 10 “International” teams and the real disparity is between these 10 test playing nations and all other cricket playing nations. Those unaccredited nations are known as “associates” and include the likes …read more

The second phase of the ICC ticketing strategy for the ICC World Cup in West Indies next year kicks into action on Monday.Cricket fans the world over are sure to swamp the offical ticketing website until it falls off the face of the ‘net. Assuming, though, they can even figure out what the heck it is they are trying to order.
The process is allegedly simple – you just need to pick your ticket types, the venue, a venue-team combination, decide if it’s Path A or Path B on Option 1 or 2 and if it’s Category 1, 2, 3 or …read more