Obaid bags an interview with the great man himself in Pakistan:

 So on getting to Karachi I started hustling for an interview with the great man himself. Despite my efforts it appeared that the interview would not occur but on the day before I was supposed to leave I got a call from my aunt (thanks and thank you Lodhi sahab) at 10pm that Miandad was waiting for my call :) Wow! I picked up the phone and was very thankful to him that I got to chat for about 20 minutes. Thank you Miandad sahab - it was a pleasure talking to you.

FICA looks like it might finally "step up" as they say in baseball. And they should pay attention to US sports players' union efforts:

Smith said the players have realised their worth after being showered with millions of dollars by the Indian Premier League and its rival Indian Cricket League and feel they are better prepared to handle the game's functioning.

"We believe that because the players are better organised and that talent has been radically revalued by the Indian leagues it's time to look at whether the players can do a better job than the current policy makers," Smith said.

Finally, Samir Chopra's angle on the IPL media entanglement:

A peculiar market logic drives all of the IPL's actions; in its view, the game is a commodity that has to be marketed, one which could be rendered uselessly common and must be kept scarce (but only in marketing, not in actual competition, the market for which will magically expand provided the right sort of marketing is used).