Is it me or are there warning signs that the hype and the huge mounds of cash surrounding the proposed Twenty20 Champions League is already damaging the integrity of cricket the world over?

While the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) appear hell-bent on world domination, so the England and Wales Cricket Board have been caught out. Red-faced with trousers down, they seem off the pace and utterly unsure as to which of the Test-playing nations they should hop into bed with.

Having promised the finalists of our domestic Twenty20 competition two lucrative spots at next month’s BCCI-backed Champions League event, ECB chairman Giles Clarke has since confirmed Kent are no longer welcome, neither are beaten T20 semi-finalists Essex, who he proposed as an alternative.

In a late yet slightly desperate bid to take part, Kent officials even suggested they would leave two players at home, namely Justin Kemp and Azhar Mahmood, the two all-rounders who caused the BCCIs umbrage by taking part in the rebel Indian Cricket League. But even that olive branch was thrown back into Kentish faces.

To my mind, Kent should never have made that offer. After all, who are the BCCI to dictate Spitfires’ selection policy?

Surely better for Kent, the 17 other first-class counties and the ECB to take the moral high ground and a stronger stance.

Once denied the Champions League berth previously offered to them, Kent should have led a campaign demanding the ECB to withdraw all English participation in this event.

A tough call for Twenty20 champions Middlesex I know but at least then the county clubs and the ECB would have emerged from this sorry mess with their integrity intact.

As it is, the tail continues to wag the dog. The ECB, who are meant to represent the 18 counties, do their best to suppress their views while the BCCI are allowed to cock a snoop at whoever they don’t like the look of.

For the sake of the reputation of cricket in England, let us all turn our backs on the BCCI and the Champions League, withdraw Middlesex and organise our own tournaments at a time and a place that suits our players and clubs.

To do anything else just wouldn’t be cricket, would it?