Hi, all... this is the first in what should be a very long-running series of personalised diaries brought to you via email. And you'll need to bear with us while we get the tone and tenor just right...

Meanwhile. Just picked something out of the newspapers that struck me as being quite odd. The entire defence budget of Fiji is 32 million dollars, and they have had to requisition another 2 million from somewhere.

That might seem like a lot of money if your only enemy is George Speight and he lives within, but compare it to what Vishwabandhu Gupta says, and what Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa is reported to have said. If indeed an Indian cricketer has made 50 million dollars from match-fixing, he could provide for the entire defence budget of Fiji, and still have enough left over for a comfortable living.

Which makes me wonder -- and I am not being patronising, just curious -- what percentage of the Fijian economy does Vijay Singh earn?

And while on the subject of money, have you been a bit puzzled by all that the newspapers have been highlighting recently? The Times of India for instance made a big story about Azhar’s duplex flat in Bandra costing two crore; Ajay Jadeja was reported to have attracted the attention of the IT authorities because he bought a Rs one crore house at Uday Park; lockers are found to contain 5 and 10 lakh worth of jewellery and the papers make it out to be sensational.

I don’t get it.

Azharuddin’s legal income would be way beyond 2 crore, Jadeja’s endorsements alone would see him earn at least two and a half times the cost of his new flat every year, and if someone found 5 lakhs worth of jewellery in a locker, should that make the news at all? I mean, that is the kind of money they make from four one-day internationals, isn't it?

I am sure there is a much bigger picture, and it is emerging slowly. But these numbers being bandied about just now shouldn’t mean anything, should they?

And the code of conduct…..ah, well. The BCCI is now saying that what appeared in the newspapers, and was taken apart by everyone, isn’t part of the new code at all. So then, where did that story emerge from and could a talented writer of parodies have conjured up the legalese went with it, and which seems such an integral part of all cricketing legislation?

Something doesn’t ring true.

Does one part of the BCCI not know what the other part is saying, because the person who told me this is the secretary himself. Is he reading something else? Or is someone keeping him in the dark?

Whatever it is, it doesn’t seem very nice!

Harsha

Postscript: Meanwhile from Rediff, welcome on board the email newsletter service.

The big news of the day is that BCCI president Dr A C Muthaiah will be appearing, live, on Rediff's Cricket Chat tomorrow, August 3, at 1730 IST. Given how reclusive the board's head honcho tends to be, this is one of those not-to-be-missed dates.

And oh yes -- yesterday, you guys read the BCCI's 'vision statement'. Later today, Rediff's own version of a vision statement, a blueprint for the development of cricket in the country, will go up on the site.

The URL is:

http://www.rediff.com/cricket/index.html

Let us know what you think.

Till tomorrow, then...

Mail Cricket Editor