Quote of the Week

'I should have not allowed that to happen then. I was arm-twisted to allow Andrew Flintoff to go to Chennai Super Kings. I'm to blame for that. It's a fact.' - Lalit Modi this week made the shocking admission that there was some level of impropriety during his chairmanship of the Indian Premier League.

Specifically, he claimed to CNN-IBN that he conspired with N Srinivasan to rig the 2009 player auction, something the Chennai, BCCI and cement boss man denies.

Anyhow Modi oddly neglected to add, 'The fat lump only played three games and was retired completely within six months. We cheated the system for that?!' before breaking down in uncontrollable sobs.

Still, this feels like a turning point for Lalit.

He used the terms 'I'm to blame' and 'it's a fact'.

Has somebody bought him a phrase-a-day calendar?

Childish Giggle of the Week

'It's one of those things. You spit the dummy for a day or two, offload on your wife and get back on the horse.' - David Hussey was dropped by Australia recently.

But his home life has never been more varied.

When All's Saeed And Done

After a month of speculation and innuendo, Cricinfo correspondent George Dobell has put the big issue in the UAE to bed:

'Ajmal's action is fine. That is a scientific fact.'.

He also reports, 'The ICC is reluctant to discuss bowling actions in detail because officials fear the subject is too complicated to explain.'

Actually it isn't that complicated at all. Are they worried that we won't understand it or that they themselves haven't learned the rules?

On the other hand, while poor old Sky Sports pundit Bob Willis is taking most of the flak, among the other people to label Saeed Ajmal's action illegal was, er, Saeed Ajmal.

Deep Thoughts

'There's no point looking too deep, but we also want to look deep,' says Kevin Pietersen, as reported by The Cricketer, is hedging his bets.

PR World

PR scam of the week, as reported by ABC News in Australia:

'Cricket Australia has confirmed it will remove Indian adverts for chewing tobacco from the boundary rope in the current one-day series. Cricket bosses say they were assured that the signage, in Hindi script, was advertising a brand of mouthwash sold in India.

'But Cricket Australia says it has since been told that the mouthwash and chewing tobacco are sold under the same 'Chainee' brand name on the subcontinent. Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek has welcomed Cricket Australia's ban and says it shows how desperate companies are to get around the advertising ban.'

Texan Star

'Ex-Stanford CFO: "Follow the money"' - Houston Chronicle

With Allen Stanford's fraud trial in its third week, alleged co-conspirator James Davis has appeared as the prosecution's star witness.

'But only follow the deposit transfers,' he neglected to add.

'Because, your honor, if you go through every financial exchange this man ever transacted, you are going to meet a lot of obscure cricketers.

'You know who Lennox Cush is? No? You may prefer to keep it that way.'

Not Vaughan Yesterday

Michael Vaughan did not spare the England batsmen in his Daily Telegraph column:

'You cannot go five Tests averaging 10 and stay in the team.'

Vaughanie should know.

Across four consecutive Tests in 2008, the then England captain averaged 9.33.

He never got a fifth.

Rumour of the Week

'Mashrafe Mortaza has reported to his franchise the Dhaka Gladiators that he had an approach regarding potential spot-fixing during the Bangladeshi Premier League. He was asked to provide certain information including whether he'd be wearing sunglasses or a cap.' - Times of India TV.

And finally: Never Mind The Bal.....

'The Woolf report is well-meaning but naïve,' sighed Cricinfo editor Sambit Bal over Haroon Lorgat's attempts to instill some integrity in the ICC before he steps down this year.

'History and acquaintance with human behaviour tell us that power is the hardest thing to renounce,' he writes.

'Just this fact makes the Woolf report, in many ways a remarkable document, hopelessly utopian.'

Fair enough. You will see India play Pakistan in Dubai with N Srinivasan streaking past the religious police before you see the BCCI give up an ounce of influence.

But what is the real answer?

Mr Bal concludes, creaking under the weight of his own profundity:

'In reality reform can only be achieved by fixing the financial imbalance in world cricket. Till then any tinkering would only be academic.'

Because while the wealthy and powerful are loath to renounce influence, they love giving their money away?

And how would such redistributive justice be achieved? By a Robin Hood tax on IPL transactions? With Ireland, Zimbabwe and Anguilla becoming financial superpowers to match India?

Lord Woolf of Barnes (or Woolfie, as he's known in the PwC dressing room) is surely right to think that the best thing the BCCI could do for world cricket is to release its stranglehold on ICC decision-making.

All decisions, including financial distribution, flow from the governance. And that is exactly what Woolfie was asked to review.

It's not his fault that it's never going to happen on account of the ICC resembling Jurassic Park: poor old Haroon Lorgat making a pretence at being in control while the big beasts of the BCCI could run amok and swallow him whole at any moment.

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