The Surfer

Loudly and crassly, and without much intervention, cricket has strayed from civility. Decency, once becoming and essential to sporting cultures, is almost considered sissy-ish. Quietly congratulating a batsman on a hard-earned century is viewed as weakness. You bowled hard, he played better, you struggle on, but no. Ignored amidst real war is the truth that for all its celebrity this is only sport.

"In my break in the off-season I just knew that I needed to find another way to be able to either de-stress or just handle situations a bit better," he said. "There are times when I haven't had a way to just let it all out. I started reading the Deepak Chopra book 'Perfect Health', which opened my eyes up to Ayurvedic medicine and I ended up getting a meditation teacher to teach me how to meditate. With that came yoga, which has been something that I'm not sure I would have been open to when I was younger. But that's made a huge difference."

Problems occurred whenever our dad could be persuaded to bend his back for a couple of overs. The problem for the batsman was two close catching fielders, Valderrama on the off side, a (usually) far less reliable human on the on. The problem on the scoreboards was that the new bowler would refuse to play the role of any cricketer since 1970, invariably nominating himself Fred Trueman or picking a random object from the kitchen. This led to several destructive spells against the cream of the world's early 90s international middle orders for Fiery Fred and the occasional frustratingly random "BC Lara c Valderrama b Teapot 48" in the books.

England has so many advantages on its side. It is on a great time zone, there is no other major cricket being played in the world in July, overseas players love coming to our country and the long summer evenings are perfect for Twenty20. We are also a country where the public will spend money to watch live sport. We love sport in England and there would be no problem getting bums on seats at a franchise Twenty20 tournament. It is just about getting the correct format.

Some fear that this decision of the Supreme Court would open up the floodgates, bringing a number of societies and other such private associations within the courts' powers of judicial review. But, as the English barrister Michael Beloff once wrote, "It is an argument, which intellectually has little to commend it… For it is often the case that once the courts have shown the willingness to intervene, the standards of the bodies at risk of their intervention tend to improve."

Common law has historically imposed a duty on those exercising powers of monopoly -- whether self-arrogated or through governmental intervention -- to act fairly and reasonably. Our courts must now extend this rationale to hold not only the BCCI accountable, but also other such private associations, which in exercise of monopolistic powers, impinge upon the citizenry's most basic civil liberties

Clarke is at war with his superiors. And, as much as he belligerently holds onto the idea of playing for his country again, it is also clear his teammates have moved on without him.

"We weren't happy about the colour," says Ewen Chatfield. "I don't think New Zealand Cricket had any choice. How they came to pick beige, I don't know."

In the end, a president will be found. What after that? Is it not time for a professional CEO at the BCCI or at least the IPL. The IPL needs to be spun off, with the BCCI as a sort of holding company. It needs a CEO who reports to BCCI officials but has autonomy of action, signs guarantees against conflict of interest and insider trading, is free to negotiate contracts with sponsors and vendors, must be accountable to pre-decided key performance indicators, and should have his or her annual bonuses determined by revenues and profits earned. In the future the IPL could even be listed on the stock market.