We need to play global events for the prestige but not every year. We should play the World Cup but I personally am against every other tournament.”Modi and India are fundamentally opposed to a Twenty20 World Cup and do not have much time for the biennial Champions’ Trophy It clogs the real fixture list. “We can only be called a bully if we’re asking for unfair terms,” he said.”For the first time we’re flexing our muscles. Without money we have nowhere to go, but in the second stage what you’ll hear a lot more about is development. In a month or so I’ll be out of the picture.”This was somewhat disingenuous because Modi has made regular threats about what India might do to world cricket, which in short amounts to shafting it if he cannot have his way He demurred. In the forest of invective, polemic and demands it still managed to emerge – just – that while Modi fully grasps India’s power and is prepared to wield it, he also understands the old but true sporting platitude that to win you need somebody to play.”I believe the BCCI can be the greatest institution in the world,” he said, batting not an eyelid “I won’t be stopping. You have to understand that I wear a commercial hat so I’m coming across as very aggressive, but that’s my job.

We have a lot of development plans for stadiums, infrastructures, coaching programmes, indoor arenas, but the first stage is money. Modi was in characteristically unstoppable form last week in his comfortable, document-strewn office on the third floor of a fairly shabby and unimposing concrete block in a Bombay suburb. He is one of three vice-presidents in the new regime and head of the commercial operation.Modi’s antics have not endeared him to all, and in the corridors of the International Cricket Council they view with a certain scepticism, allied to a tinge of fear, his threats, claims and apparent mega-deals.Whatever stance they eventually evoke, there is no doubt that India are now in an unprecedented position. This has given them unrivalled funds and a tendency to start calling the shots.Collier and Carr have had cause to breathe sighs of relief that they travelled so far, so quickly. India and England are now old chums and Australia have also climbed into the same bed.The man who has done most of the speaking and threatening in the past 15 weeks is a fast-talking, highly confident but wholly approachable 42-year-old multi-millionaire who was educated at two American universities, called Lalit Kumar Modi.

The sport makes the front pages every day and is played, watched and mulled over endlessly. The rest, it seemed, could go hang.A few weeks later, the other reason for the bullishness became apparent. In pretty short order, the new BCCI announced a four-year television deal which netted £325million, a team sponsorship worth £55m and a kit deal of £28.8m, with several more to come. It was the day after the contentious elections to decide who would run Indian cricket, and so who would have the most significant, possibly decisive voice in the direction, operation, funding and state of world cricket. The chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, accompanied by John Carr, the director of cricket operations, had decided he must meet the new men in charge at the earliest opportunity.
The pair were following the money and the power but that hardly made the decision less wise. They wanted to try to ensure an alliance with perhaps the most dominant sporting authority in the world, the Board of Control for Cricket in India.Shortly afterwards, the potential influence this august but, until then, frequently shambolic body could yield was crystallised by statements indicating what they were and were not prepared to do and who they wanted – and did not want – to play.Invariably, they emphasised the virtual omnipotence of Indian cricket. Prior to the collapse Flintoff twice cleared the ropes with top-edged sixes, the second of which, off Patel, was carried over the rope at fine-leg in the process of catching by Irfan Pathan.