The Cash dash...

It’s just as well there was a decent weekend of FA Cup action, as for England fans there was nothing to sup on but the bitter pint of despair and the soggy crisps of humiliation as we were respectively tonked by the Kiwis at Cricket and hammered by the Scots at Rugger.

So moving swiftly on, we’ll gloss over those which is readily covered by the old standby, ‘It’s England, what else do you seriously expect?’.

But the other big issue exercising us at the moment is the Indian Premier League and last week’s announcement that anyone playing for its rival the Indian Cricket League in future will be banned from all cricketing activity .

So donning our big sports punditry hat of seriousness we’d like to consider what this means for the game. First up let’s dispense with any coyness, this is simply about making the Indian board an even bigger pile of cash than it currently squats on, by some estimates the IPL will earn the BCCI $1 billion dollars.

When Zee Telefims threatened to break their cricketing monopoly, the BCCI quickly knocked up their own competition, the ICL, which is so awash with wedge that it threatens to disrupt the entire international schedule (which is already stretched to breaking), as well as sucking out the leading players into an essentially meaningless though extremely lucrative knockabout.

What’s even more depressing is the way the BCCI has used its financial muscle to bully the rest of the ICC (the ECB included) into forcing players to boycott the ICL for fear of not being allowed to play in their own domestic game. Restraint of trade anyone? Someone, probably England or the Aussies should have called their bluff, instead of meekly bending over.

When Twenty20 was introduced it was touted as a real saviour for the world game, but we seriously doubt this is what anyone had in mind.