KEY POINTS:
Cricket used to be an orderly business.
Domestic competitions ran along sedately; international tours were eagerly anticipated. You knew who was coming and when. The international body oversaw the game.
But that was before Lalit Modi hove into view.
The little Indian who runs the Indian Premier League
is the big wheel when it comes to cricket in his homeland. And with each passing week he looks more like a puppetmaster pulling the national boards' strings.
Remember all the talk about international cricket not being interfered with when the IPL kicked off? How must the International Cricket Council, who sanctioned - or at least gave nodding approval - to its establishment by Modi and his chums - be viewing Modi's machinations now?
His latest slap this week was to England's leading players, who fancy being involved in next season's IPL in April-May, having missed out first time round this year. Modi's message? Commit to the IPL, at the expense of their English early-season commitments, or forget it.
Modi went further. The England and Wales Cricket Board should shunt back the start of their home season. That would allow the likes of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff to play more IPL games, thus making them more attractive to franchise owners, and still be available for England.
But Modi wasn't finished. If England fancied having India's leading players available for their domestic Twenty20 league, as they do, they'd have to shift their season back.
As Modi, ever the businessman, pointed out, allowing a block of centrally contracted Indian players to play in England round the same time as the IPL would "be creating competition for ourselves".
Some time ago, when the Indian Cricket League was beginning, and the IPL was subsequently set up to ward off potential defectors from the international game, the accepted wisdom was that the privately run ICL wore the black hats; with the IPL riding to defend international cricket on their white chargers.
The ICC must now be reflecting that they've let loose a tiger within their tent. Like pushing toothpaste back into the tube, they face a situation both tricky and messy.
New Zealand have been lucky so far. The home season happily ends about when the IPL starts. Compared with England, and the West Indies, having a handful of players miss the start of last season's England tour was, albeit far from satisfactory, a small price to pay.
You can argue that the Pietersens and Flintoffs of the game are supremely well rewarded as it is. How much more do they need? After all, they don't want to play in the IPL to check out the lights and sample the dressing room cuisine.
They want a slice of the action they feel is being denied them. The ICC are treading softly. You won't hear criticism of Modi. Tweaking a tiger's tail is a dodgy proposition.
Today England began a seven-game ODI series in India. Yesterday Flintoff had a bat-waving stoush with the Indians, objecting to the hosts' belting balls past English ears from nearby nets.
Given the backdrop, expect plenty of balls to be in play on and off the field in the coming weeks.
