I almost feel sorry for Malcolm Speed. I’ll get over it of course. Whoops, there you go, over it already, but while it lasted my sympathy for the poor fella springs from his latest ‘exclusive’ on Cricinfo.

To see a man defend himself against the contents of a letter that he actually hasn’t received is a sorry sight. Kind of like what it would be to watch Muhammad Ali get into the ring today against one of those huge European circus freaks they call boxers. Sad and pathetic.

Unfortunately the fact that Speed has seen the need to launch his Scud’s before the enemy’s attack has been confirmed just goes to prove that he either has received the Zimbabwe letter and is therefore a bare arsed liar (no, never I hear you Speed defenders cry) or that he is as inept a politician as he is CEO.

What kind of medical school do they send spin doctors to these days for heavens sake. Every political slimeball worth their salt knows that the first spin is always plausible deniability. Only when the evidence is laid out bare for all to poke do you resort to overt defensiveness and issue skewing to fit your own agenda.

Man, they just don’t make tossers like they used to.