'It's not cricket'

Amid all the anxiety and hand-wringing I find it easy to spot the articles written by non-cricketers. They're the ones that use that hackneyed phrase - those who understand even a little of the game's history would know better. There have always been problems with shady characters and more often than not there's a bet involved somewhere. As we all know we have Laws as opposed to Rules and it was suggested to me recently that that was to ensure legal compliance in the face of big wagers - I'm not sure about that but it's clear that without patrons and sponsors we'd not have the game we do now.

And as for those who suggest that since the phrase can't be applied any more we're all going to the proverbial in the watsit, there's no hope.