Sport dragged through the mud

So now, apparently, it has come to murder. Was there a more poignant or incongruous sight than that of Bob Woolmer’s remains being driven past the cameras of the world’s sporting press in Jamaica covering the cricket World Cup?

Was there ever a cricket-related moment more removed from the slap of leather on willow echoing in the shadows growing across the village green? The sporting hacks have seen and witnessed many things they either shouldn’t have or prefer not to report on, but even they could not have imagined making their own news pages in this fashion.

For decades now, the secret subtext of the involvement of international professional sports in organised ...