25 March

So, when you sit and watch Ricky Ponting, with his $65 million in the bank, commentate on the ‘Big Bash’, doesn’t it ring alarm bells - cricket is losing its way? Gambling is trashing the game, and its culture. The Poms are loving today’s story, they’re better at winning off the field than on it, and I remember Atherton having a pocket full of dirt and modifying the ball with it, and the entire England team on an Ashes tour conspiring to use peppermints to induce reverse swing. But it’s like the Lance Armstrong-ing of cricket, they’re all at it, with bookmakers financing the carnage.