Quotes from Gideon Haigh

Far from marking the end of nationalism, the IPL is the ultimate triumph of that principle: a global tournament in which the same nation always wins.

George Orwell famously described international sport as 'war minus the shooting'. But for all Orwell's greatness as a thinker, this was one of his least felicitous lines, analogous to 'murder minus the death' or 'life minus the breathing'.

F]or all its reputation for conservatism, cricket in its history has demonstrated a remarkable capacity for innovation. What game has survived subjection to such extraordinary manipulations, having been prolonged to 10 days (in Durban 70 years ago), truncated to as few as 60 balls (in Hong Kong every year), and remained recognisable in each instance?

As an ersatz opening batsman, Tavaré did not so much score runs as smuggle them out by stealth.

The risk is, as ever, that the hyperbole of IPL will simply smother the cricket; perhaps the members of the IPL's cheer squad should stop listening to each other and start listening to themselves.

The assumption now is that the interests of the brand and of the game overlap to the degree that cricket need hardly be mentioned.

No cricketer is so dependent on the turf on which the game is played as the spinner; it can make, break, enfang or defang him.

The IPL, involving the socialist principle of a salary cap and the protectionist mechanism of quotas, is not perhaps the best example of a market left flourishingly to its own devices and dynamics.

Richards double-century

Watson in the nineties has been like English cricket in the nineties: an accident waiting to happen.

There is a hint of hypocrisy about a cricketer who affects to let his bat do the talking, then in the next breath has his talk do the baiting.

An even more pointed reminder of changed circumstances, of course, is the AIG symbol sported, doubtless with some chagrin, by Manchester United, worth £14 million a year to the club when the deal was done thirty months ago, but now as ignominiously conspicuous as mouthing a slogan for Luftschiffbau Zeppelin in May 1937: 'You'll always travel Fuhrer class on the Hindenburg!' Man

more stiffly endorsed by Prime Minister Lyons, who expressed support for free speech to the extent that people didn't use it to foment discontent.