"Come on, we're all whores," as reprised by Stanford, doesn't have quite the same ring to it. He was pushing at an open gate. Sport-as-whore is getting to be old hat. The moneymen took over long ago. The old-school committeemen are safely in retreat and enjoying golfing retirements. It's time for wise counsel, a pause for breath and careful consideration about what is best for the game-in other words, some proper stewardship by the chairman. An entrepreneur is always looking to make money. A good administrator, on the other hand, seeks to redress a balance that has swung too far out of its appropriate equipoise. Sometimes he will need to shift the institution towards simple commercialism, sometimes away from it. 

If Clarke isn't able to turn around this perception, there is a danger that English cricket will retreat towards management by consensus muddle. It would be a disaster if his direction and clarity became too closely associated with commercialism and vulgarity. So Clarke might do well to consider the lessons of The Bonfire of the Vanities, compromise his entrepreneurial swagger and discover his inner chairman - fast.