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This makes it sound uncannily like a perfect World Cup.”I think it would complement the World Cup,” said Speed. “The issue is how we get the eight teams.” Sounds like tough luck for Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, but with the competition being held somewhere in the subcontinent he was not about to say so.. England begin a potentially momentous international season on Thursday with the first of two Test matches against Bangladesh. If not, the event will move to Pakistan, where safety factors would be involved.There are plans in hand to revamp the tournament, the favoured option being to reduce it to eight teams on a round-robin basis so that all matches are meaningful.

That and what the ICC decide to stage in the other year between World Cups, given that a Super Series may not always be possible The present $550m (£300m), seven-year deal runs out in 2007. The Champions Trophy is in trouble because in 2002 it failed to produce a champion when rain washed out the final on successive days, and in 2004 it was plain dreadful until rescued by a thrilling final.Next year the Trophy is due to be held in India, but the ICC are awaiting confirmation that the Indian government will grant tax concessions on their revenue during the tournament. Doubtless he treats throwing as a continuing saga.More pressing business is likely to involve the whereabouts and style of next year’s Champions Trophy. This biennial tournament is fighting for its reputation, if not its life, and may well influence the next round of television rights. Pakistan recognised this when, on being told that Shoaib’s action had considerably improved, their cricket board asked for him to be allowed to bowl “without inhibition” in future.The ICC’s reply came from the cricket general manager, David Richardson, but it had Speed-speak all over it and was tantamount to saying: “You’re ‘avin a larf ain’t yer.” That is, allowing someone to bowl without limitation “would obviously not make sense, as a bowler could then simply revert to old habits”.Speed has rarely shown any sign of being worn down by the cares of office, and apparently remained unmoved when Nasser Hussain was rude to him in South Africa during England’s World Cup shenanigans over Zimbabwe.

It was obvious the Indian board were pretty unhappy about Harbhajan being reported again, and Speed’s diplomacy has been essential. India have no imminent international commitments, but so much for the new throwing regulations meaning “the introduction of a shorter, independent review process”.The cases of both Harbhajan and Shoaib Malik, the Pakistan off-spinner, illustrate the harsh truth that once an action is branded suspect it is always suspect. Given that the ICC are only as strong as their members allow, he has not been afraid to stand up for what he believes to be right, and he was courting unpopularity again last week.Throwing remains the most contentious subject in the game, and the ICC are unwittingly but fittingly in an arm-lock over it. The decision to permit bowlers a 15-degree limit of elbow extension unavoidably risked accusations of a chucker’s charter despite, or perhaps because of, its scientific basis. On the one hand, cricket wishes to retain the human element in decisions, on the other it is impossible when somebody is being charged with the game’s most heinous crime.Harbhajan Singh, the Indian off-spinner, is again under scrutiny, and is now being assessed by an Australian chap billed as one of the world’s leading biomechanists, Marc Pothas. Harbhajan was reported for his doosra on 20 March, and only on Thursday was the next biomechanical stage agreed. In no particular order, the issues that world cricket is trying to resolve at present include throwing, bat size and composition, changes in the rules to cheer up one-day internationals, the use of technology by umpires, convincing everybody else that the Johnnie Walker Super Series between Australia and the Rest of the World is a jolly good thing, the venue of the 2006 Champions Trophy, who plays in it wherever it takes place, and the next lot of television rights.

He is a lawyer by trade and inclination, and weighs up his answers and his options as though he had a scale of justice in either hand. A lot is made of the supposed clash between the International Cricket Council and their members, but if every day we got out of bed and found that all our members agreed with us on everything we were doing we’d be getting it wrong.”Speed is the chief executive of the ICC, dry as the Dubai desert whence he and his organisation will soon move. That is an exhausting but probably not exhaustive list.
“It’s inevitable in sport that there will always be an issue of the moment,” said Malcolm Speed. “Part of the art of dealing with it is to see it coming, and if you can’t solve it before it arrives, try to fix it as effectively as possible.

“Especially when things haven’t gone well, he’s reminded me that there is a lot more to life than cricket.” And if Bell truly believes that, it might just be the signal that he is indeed ready.Biography: Ian Ronald BellBorn: 11 April 1982, Walsgrave, Coventry.Plays for: Warwickshire, England.England career: Tests (one match, v West Indies, The Oval 2004; scored 70 off 130 balls, took two catches).One-Day Internationals: eight matches Debut v Zimbabwe, Harare 2004 Total of 189 runs (highest score 75) at average of 31.50. Has also taken two catches.Awards: NBC Denis Compton award 1999, 2000, 2001; PCA Cricketer of the Year 2004.Also: once described by Dale Hadlee (brother of Sir Richard) as “the best 16-year-old I have ever seen”.. Succeed and he has a job for life, fail and he merely follows so many of recent vintage.But the selectors think they have spotted something. If it works, they had better drop a thank you note to Inverarity.”He’s been a mentor, not just with batting,” said Bell. Tickets have gone better than expected, since the match is a Test in name only.The Bangladeshi community in London has rallied behind the team after deliberate targeting by the MCC, and perhaps those fans denied a ticket for the Australian Test by failure in the ballot are taking the chance for a day at Lord’s.Bangladesh’s squad is improbably young. Seven of its members were on tour in this country last summer with the country’s Under-19s. Four of them have a realistic chance of playing on Thursday (not to mention the 20-year-old Mohammad Ashraful, Test cricket’s youngest centurion at 17).Among the quartet is Mushfiqur Rahim, the reserve wicketkeeper, who may come in as a specialist batsman.