When the BCCI chucked England out of the Twenty-20 Champions League, and even assumed total control of conducting the event without even a by-your-leave from the erstwhile hosts, I couldn't stop myself from laughing out loud.

What made it funnier still was the Australian and South African boards backing the BCCI, and the New Zealand board's hope (wish / desire) that one of the now-vacant slots be filled by their Twenty-20 championship side. Weren't there supposed to be two blocs; the Asian bloc and the non-Asian one? Right now, there seems to be only one bloc, the BCCI one, and everyone is in that and those that aren't want to get in as soon as possible.

The English would love to be in it too, to be honest, and it is only because the BCCI has put up a "Dogs and Englishmen not allowed" board outside that the ECB is thinking up a parallel Champions League. Not having the smart people that the BCCI has, the ECB's brilliant idea has already raked up much heated debate within its own county teams, and the idea looks to be degenerating even before it can come up.

The BCCI has the money, or the power to generate it, and those who want the green stuff can line up. Thus line up Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and everyone else; you can see the Punters and the Haydens lining up with their national team resignations in their pockets in case they have to make a choice; you can see the Sri Lankan players wanting to skip the tour of England coz the BCCI is hosting the annual IPL then; you can see them all lining up and cribbing against the bullying tactics and growing power of the BCCI; they are still lining up.

If it has any shame left, the ICC should hand in its resignation as the governing body for the game, and instead go clean toilets or something more useful than what it is doing today. Till now no one really cared for the ICC but it had some standing as a figurehead body at least. Now recent happenings show that no one is even pretending that the ICC is running things.

When the BCCI wanted to get the ICL banned, all the other boards nodded their heads in agreement though it is doubtful if they knew the difference between the ICL and the ICU (Intensive Care Unit). When the BCCI came up with its admittedly brilliant IPL plan, I am sure all the boards saw the possibilities of a Frankenstein's monster being born but everyone was too allured by all the promised green to seriously bother about it. Now the monster is showing its colors, no one is still bothered coz the green is still there. No one except the ECB is bothered, that is, but that is only because the ECB is not getting any of the green.

I think it is too much to expect that someday the BCCI would sit with the other boards (and the ICC, if they stroll into the meeting too) and talk reasonably about the game and the direction in which it should go globally. The BCCI is going to run things the way they want and they know a snap of the fingers will make everyone line up and dance the way they want them to.

The players are not complaining, the public is not complaining; the purists can talk till they are blue in the face about Twenty-20 being picnic cricket and not being the true test of a cricketer but no one is really listening to them; even they themselves aren't listening with full concentration as they are looking towards how some of the green might be directed in their own direction.

Kerry Packer's was a revolution in cricket. The BCCI is going to make the next revolution in cricket, and Packer's revolution will soon look as boring as algebra.