Until Louis Figo, the dapper Portugese captain beguiled the Netherland's football team by getting them a red card from an over-enthusiastic match referee, the Orange men looked fairly threatening in Deutsche land. To rub salt in their fresh hurting wounds, the ICC (International Cricket Circus, oops, Council) had prepared a week-end carnival in the form of a One-Day match against Sri Lanka, who by sheer coincidence had hammered the phlegmatic Poms mercilessly just a few days before, scoring 322 runs in 38 overs, thereby thrashing the Ashes aspirants by a somewhat lop-sided 5-0 whitewash, which would do Berger Paints proud.

Thanks to ICC's continued self-obsessed streak manifested in myopic frames, the comedy show continues unabated. While half the universe gulped beer, munched potato fries, and either went into wild hip swinging celebrations or contemplated doses of ant-depression pills

Depending upon how patriotic passions and personal favorites played out in Berlin, Sri Lanka were establishing new cricketing world records with careless abandon and cavalier ease.

Check this! The good natured blokes from the tiny island south of India, remorselessly plundered 443 for nine in 50 overs, with the diabolical Sanath Jayasuria stroking balls with ruthless impunity, even as a poor bloke called Peter Borren returned with unenviable figures of one for 94 off nine overs. It was like asking the Indian football team to play the combined might of Brazil and Argentina on one leg.

Worse still, by stupidly giving these silly matches an "official" status, the ICC has destroyed the very fiber and sanctity of the game itself. It is like seeding a novice qualifier in Wimbledon, even before the inexperienced rookie has made his first double-fault.

Thanks to ICC's unalloyed immaturity, the fabulous duel between the two arch rivals South Africa and Australia not so long ago at the Wanderer's, Johannesburg will now occupy a sad second place, being dethroned by a farcical spectacle between two terribly unequally matched sides. It makes a pathetic mockery of Herschelle Gibbs magnificent knock and the pulsating century by a rampaging Ricky Ponting.

I predict that this junket and jamboree will continue unabated, and the grand spectacle in the Carribean next year will be rechristened, the World Record Cup 2007. How about an inaugural match between Bermuda Islands and the continent of Australia? I am waiting to watch this thriller with breathless anticipation.