Thank god for the BCCI!

I love the BCCI and I want to give them a huge hug and lots of mushy kisses.

Hold on! you cry. They're the monopolist bastards who are responsible for ridiculous actions like pulling Sachin Tendulkar from a match at the last moment because of a slight hint of ICL in the air. Aren't they ruining the game by preventing the best players from competing with each other?

Well yes, all of the above is true. But every story needs a decent villain who gains the ascendancy for long periods, only to get their comeuppance in the final chapter.

Sadly the story of cricket is nowhere near as exciting. The headline competition takes the form of a series of international home and away tours that provide no continuous arc to a decisive final competition to select the season's champion.

Tennis learnt the lesson that a series of tour events is insufficient for fan involvement, with everyone losing interest after the US Open. So they introduced the end-of-season Masters Cup, in which the best performing players of the year fight it out for megabucks to decide that year's champion. Now, fans will follow their favourite players for the entire season to see if they make the grade - which translates into watching a lot of tennis.

The closest that cricket has is the Ashes, which captured international attention when England despatched the ultimate cricket nemesis to universal acclaim. However the following week both teams had moved on to the next tour, which Australia predictably won. England's achievement wasn't forgotten, but it was somewhat overshadowed.

Wouldn't it have been magnificent if the Ashes had been the climactic final competition of the season? England (and the world) could have rested on their laurels and enjoyed bragging rights for a year.

Of course there are difficulties with an arbitrary international season across both hemispheres, but tennis is also an international game and has managed to work out a solution.

And back to why I love the BCCI: at present they provide the only story in cricket with any degree of long-running drama. Without their battle with the plucky ICL, I would have lost interest long ago. And when the BCCI is finally brought down a peg or two, my satisfaction will be all the greater for having had to wait for it.