The administrators of 2014

I don't know about you, but I've had enough of 2014. Like a Jonathan Trott innings or a series between India and Sri Lanka, it has been painful to watch, has contained few highlights and seems to have gone on for longer than is necessary.

But before we can get shot of 2014, we must first go through the ritual of the Naming of the Teams of the Year. As we speak, cricket hacks around the globe are sitting weary at their laptops, tapping out a list of the world's most obviously eminent cricketers (Warner, Amla, Sangakkara, Johnson, Steyn, er, how many is that?) cobbling together some spurious reasoning/statistical fluff/pun-heavy filler and pressing send.

Not until every cricket scribbler on the planet has submitted their near-identical copy, can the great cricket god in the sky knock off the bails of time and declare 2014 closed.

But in this avalanche of praise for the men who play the game, one group of heroes is always overlooked. I'm talking about the men putting in the long hours in the boardroom, working two, sometimes three-day weeks, to make sure that our great global game runs smoothly, and by "smoothly" I mean "not very smoothly at all".

So this year the Long Handle blog contains no Tedious Test XI or Blindingly Obvious Twenty20 All-Star Collective. Instead, I present, for your delectation, appreciation, and legal redress, the 2014 Cricket Board of the Year.

Chairman: Mr P Concrete, BCCI
Special mention to Sir Giles Stanford, for making it mandatory for all village clubs to charge passers-by a fee if they stop to watch the cricket, and to General Coup for his attempt to instigate a military takeover of the PCB in order to get Shahid Afridi back into the Test team, but in the end our selectors had to give the nod to Mr Concrete. His ownership of the Cuttack Kickbacks whilst simultaneously chairing the now defunct Ethics and Standards Committee at the BCCI marked him out as a genuine talent in a vintage year for rogue administrators.

Managing Director: Mr PRD Saster, ECB
After the retirement of Ijaz Butt it was said that the days of the overbearing cricket boss who can't open his mouth without inserting his foot were over, but the ECB's new man has resurrected a lost art. His combination of wacky decision-making and convoluted explanations has caught the public's imagination. Look out for more entertainment in 2015.

Head of Finance: Mr EC Fix, Belize and Luxembourg Cricket Association
The numbers speak for themselves. Ten million dollars in a Swiss bank account, 13 writs and three outstanding arrest warrants are stats that any financial fugitive would be proud of. His nimble footwork, evasive interview technique and impressive range of moustache-based disguises marked him out as one of the stars of 2014.

Head of Human Resources: Mr R Gument, WIPA
Over the last 20 years, the West Indies have produced some of the world's most egregious administrators and Mr R Gument is the latest off the talent production line. A former domestic cricketer and successful businessman, he has 30 years experience of man-management, communication and team-building to draw upon. Fortunately he has chosen not to bother and although only in his rookie season, he already has one player strike and three legal challenges under his belt. One to watch in 2015.