I must confess I am enjoying being a little part of a quiet new revolution in world cricket; of being in this wonderful and disarming global village. The Airtel Champions League is an idea that is finding its feet and if you measure its success by the quality of cricket and the opportunity it is giving players who were otherwise confined to narrower worlds, it has already worked. Admittedly there are other tools to measure success and the more crucial ones are whether enough people are coming to the ground or watching at home. You can be sure those issues will be addressed because there are large investments at stake, but purely from a cricketing point of view, I am excited.

There is now life beyond international cricket as we knew it and for that alone we must rejoice. There are few things that stir people’s emotions more than nation versus nation contests, and that will never change, but that is a smaller, more exalted world. Sport, indeed any pursuit in life, must allow as many people as possible to display their ability, to parade their skills and a nation versus nation contest can be restrictive.

It could never, for example, allow you to experience the combination of disbelief and joy that we saw with Alfonso Thomas of Somerset. Not many people knew much about him, we knew that he was a cricketer, no more, but against the Deccan Chargers he kept his cool, took his side home and then produced one of the most wonderfully innocent and unrestrained exhibitions of happiness I have seen. “I can’t believe what I’ve done” he gushed and for that moment alone I thought the Champions League was worth it. There are two ways of globalising a game. One is to allow as many countries as possible to play it and the ICC is, very quietly, doing a very nice job. The other is to allow as many players as possible a stage on which to perform. This is what I hope the Champions League, and in course of time all the feeder tournaments, will do.

... contd.