WHEN former Tesco boss Lord MacLaurin took over as chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board he announced his intention to streamline the operation.

It subsequently mushroomed into a cast of thousands, including a heavily-staffed media relations department, whose latest missive goes as follows:

"The ECB and ESPN STAR Sports (ESS), Asia's No 1 sports broadcaster, have announced a new five-year contract for the exclusive rights to broadcast the ECB's domestic and home international matches across various platforms including television (inclusive of mobile TV), internet and radio. Apart from covering the core cricket markets of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the contract also provides ESS the broadcast rights throughout the Middle East, China, Japan and the rest of Asia."

There was much more, including a quote from current ECB chairman David Morgan saying: "This is a tremendous result for cricket in England and Wales. This renewed partnership with a substantial increase in the rights fees will provide both the county and international game as well as the grass roots with funds to develop not only our playing sides but also much needed funds for facility development. I would like to congratulate . . ." Blah, blah, blah.

There are further quotes from ESS chiefs along the "we are delighted" lines, but there is no mention of the sums involved or any attempt to explain in simple terms what it's all about. My own attempts to decipher it leave me with the impression that cricket coverage is drifting even further away from terrestrial television and the whole business is increasingly being dictated by the Asian market.

There is also a ZEE TV, backers of the Indian Cricket League, who have announced the names of 50 players who have defied their own boards by signing up. They include Lance Klusener and Nicky Boje, but are mostly unknown Indians. The Indian board are also said to be setting up their own international Twenty20 competition, none of which does the game any good but simply reflects a greedy desire to cash in on the Indian market's apparently insatiable appetite for all forms of cricket.

AS WE await breathlessly the inaugural World Twenty20 Cup it is spoiling the climax to our own season through the loss of star players, with neither Shivnarine Chanderpaul nor Muttiah Muralitharan available to illuminate Blackpool next week when Durham play Lancashire.

Sometimes lesser beings briefly come in as replacements and prove a waste of megabucks, such as Daren Powell at Hampshire. Yorkshire must hope that does not apply to Inzamam ul-Haq, who has made a poor start but on whom the destiny of the title might hinge at Hove next week.

Champions Sussex have the advantage that Mushtaq Ahmed is available all season and the pitch will be prepared to suit him, which is why Yorkshire are trying to sort out a work permit for a second leg-spinner to support Adil Rashid in the Marton professional Imran Tahir.

THE potential role of sport in combating our yob culture has been a recurring theme of this column for years, but while politicians have suddenly begun to speak of a broken society how many will appreciate that they need to persuade hoodies to take out their frustrations on each other in a controlled manner?

It has worked wonders at a problem school in London, where the boys start every day by playing rugby, yet we read that in Thirsk a skateboarding club are hopeful of landing £50,000 of lottery money towards a new skateboarding park 18 months after a previous one was closed because of vandalism. The only possible reaction is to laugh uproariously, otherwise we'd all go mad.

TALKING of yob culture, what a dispiriting photo that was of the Newcastle fans reacting to Mido's taunting after scoring for Middlesbrough. Unfortunately, we have to accept that such people are easily incited, so it was right for Mido to be booked.

It is difficult to decide whether the most depressing aspect is that the Toon Army are not alone in this - it could have happened at almost any ground - or that many of the two-fingered gestures and snarling faces belonged to middle-aged men. What hope for their offspring?

WHAT a pity we cannot be totally delighted about Christine Ohuruogu's gold medal. One of those all-too-frequently occurring headlines on Wednesday said "Ohuruogu out to silence doubters" as though winning a gold medal would expunge her year's ban from the memory. She may well have been the victim of administrative error, but as with the cyclist Lance Armstrong we can never be absolutely certain.