It's official ...

Just when you thought the International Cricket Council had got things right in organising a jamboree cricket match to raise funds for victims of the Tsunami disaster that struck South Asia, they bungle it up. Staging associations, sponsors, television channels and sundry other parties came together spontaneously, in the right spirit, along with the players, and this, you would think was enough for the game to be a resounding success.

But the ICC is greedy. They want the match to have official one-day inernational status, so, conceivably, it can be monetised more completely. Well, we've been through these grounds before - not any match can be a one-day international.

"The ICC board is of the view that due to the extraordinary circumstances that have brought about these two matches an exception to the existing rules should be made," Ehsan Mani has said. "This decision applies only to these two matches and does not change the status of other one-day matches from the past or in the future."

But, what in heaven's name are you going to do with the records? When you list teams that have played one-day internationals will you also include Asia XI and ICC XI? And what happens to players' records? Do you count these in their one-day international stats and put an asterisk next to overall record?

We could go on and on about how silly this is. But, thankfully, this is not the first time someone has tried to pull such a stunt. Best have a look at Sorry, but they can't be official.