The cricket season is just about on the brink of chugging away at full throttle. Hardly have Australia wrapped up their successful mission to the Indian sub-continent, that the South Africans have reached India for a Test series. Australia meanwhile are rubbing their hands, relishing a close rivalry with their Trans-Tasman rivals in New Zealand. More controversially, the ECB has made a rather unpopular decision to send their team to tour Zimbabwe after all. Bangladesh are perhaps the only team to quietly go about their business, hosting the Sri Lankans after playing more than hospitable hosts to stand-in skipper Daniel Vettori and New Zealand.

But off the field, cricket has perhaps not seen so much action in recent times. The South African team arrived here in the wee hours last week. Closer home, Sourav Ganguly's misfortunes continue to pile. News filters in that the ICC will appoint a one-member committee to review the appeal put forth by the BCCI against the two-Test ban levelled against the Indian skipper for a slow over-rate during the one-off match against Pakistan to commemorate BCCI's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. It will be but a slight consolation for Sourav Ganguly as he will be able to play at least the first of two Tests against South Africa in Kanpur on Saturday with a decision still pending on his suspended sentence. Ganguly's last minute pull-out of the Nagpur Test against Australia set tongues wagging as it usually happens when a team appears staid and insipid and essentially uninspiring. Undoubtedly there are many considerations to counter the charge of slowing things down, what with the constant intervals due to the dew factor as the ball was changed no less than eight times, and the cramps that afflicted Pakistan's bright star of the evening, Salman Butt. Ganguly's affliction for on-field discussions with his bowlers had earlier incurred the referee's wrath in Australia. Coming close on the heels in under one calendar year, the 'level two' offence automatically converts into a 'level three' offence which calls for a two-game ban, a penalty not yet imposed on a captain. Once again, it throws up the debate of what will be a penalty that the players will actually respect. Docking the overs seemed a fair reinforcement, but the controversy that this kind of sentence has thrown up and more relevantly, the outcome of the weight that a colossal body such as the BCCI has thrown behind the Indian skipper, will be the subject of discussion all over the cricketing world for sure.

There is no dearth of controversy at the moment. With the ICC bending the throwing rules, we are being bombarded with unfamiliar terms such as accentuated extensions of the arm and adduction, which in simple terms basically means that watching the bowling actions of some of the players appears to the naked eye as chucking when in reality it is only an optical illusion. Want proof? Messrs. Dr. Marc Portus, Professor Bruce Elliot and Dr. Paul Hurrion, bio mechanic research team appointed by none other than the ICC, have 'discovered' that even 'near-perfection' bowlers like Glenn McGrath and Shaun Pollock have been found to stretch the ten-degree limit restriction on the odd occasion. The new rule proposes a uniform fifteen degrees of concession. It has divided the cricketing world with allegations that the rule was bent to accommodate the 'doosra' developed by Muttiah Muralitharan. Muralitharan can rest easy since the ICC has stated that the results of the research reveal that ninety-nine percent of all bowlers are guilty of throwing! Rest assured, this contentious issue will be under close scrutiny in that it would throw up a different facet of bowling with plenty of variety and innovation but with a double-edged sword kind of twisted reality that would probably make even Charlie Griffith seem innocuous.

While Shane Warne is unhappy about the ICC amendment, the taker of a record 541 Test wickets certainly cannot wait to sink his teeth into his neighbours Down Under for the clash beginning Thursday. New Zealand have already suffered humiliation at the hands of New South Wales, albeit without the services of Stephen Fleming, Daniel Vettori and Nathan Astle. While New Zealand were able to hold Australia to a nil-nil draw the last time, the fate of their skipper still seems under a shadow of doubt, not having sufficiently recovered from a viral illness. The absence of one of the most ingenious and resourceful skippers of all time will be a big blow to the Kiwis. Under his leadership, they tested the grit and steel of the world champions.

Another litigious issue with serious political ramifications that has reared its ugly head once more is the ECB's decision, making it mandatory for the players to tour Zimbabwe. The move comes in a bid to avoid the hefty penalty in the region of ten to twenty millions dollars that England will in all likelihood be subjected to should they choose to skip the tour altogether. England skipper Michael Vaughn came out vehemently to express his reluctance and discontent with the decision while England's middle-order batsman Graham Thorpe appeared to be disillusioned at ECB's failure to fulfil their promise to back the players after their eventual decision to pass over playing Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in the last World Cup dragged into eternity. Their spearhead Darren Gough minced no words when he flatly refused to entertaining thoughts of getting anywhere close to Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean President who is largely responsible to the current fiasco.

There is definitely a lot more in store.

Old debates will be fuelled with new developments over the coming days, stoking smouldering flames. Forest fires can quickly spiral into raging infernos. Do I smell more smoke?