Cricket corruption? Oh, believe me, you dont want to hear what I think . . .

Brightons new stadium will have 13,500 more seats. But will new fans be expected to sit in silence?

Strange question, this, sort of, but how long do you need to have been following a sport, or a particular team, before youre allowed an opinion on it?

A week? A month? A season? A lifetime?

Get it wrong, butt in before your views are considered valid, before youve paid your dues or clocked up an acceptable credibility rating, and, boy, do certain people give you a hard time.

The latest cricket corruption allegations? Yes, of course I could offer you my reaction I could give you bewilderment, frustration, a hint of depression, maybe even a side-order of outrage if you fancy it but would anyone be remotely interested in reading or hearing what I have to say on the matter? I very much doubt it.

I have, after all, been following cricket for no more than a matter of months. I have no cricketing history, no roots, nothing. Ive yet to grasp even some of the basic rules. I am an interloper, an outsider, a Johnny Come Lately.

No one gives a monkeys what I think.

In fact, no, it would be worse than that. Some cricket fans would turn apoplectic, Im sure, if I dared offer so much as a passing thought on such a sensitive matter.

Sports fans as Ive been reminded by a personal football-related experience, more of which in a moment can be hideously possessive, protective and insular when it comes to outsiders talking about their game or their club.

Its on a par with other people slating your family; your blood ties allow you free reign to be as mean as you wish about your nearest and dearest, but woe betide a mere friend who offers identical thoughts on these people. T! heir opi nions may well be intended simply as moral support, but thats not the point. They dont have the right. How dare they?

So, yes, I shall avoid telling you how disillusioned I am by this current cricket scandal. In fact, disillusionment is probably the worst sentiment I could express. Hardened cricket fans would seize upon that one in an instant pointing out how patronisingly nave Ive been to imagine that cricket was ever whiter than white, how daft to suppose that it could somehow restore my fragile faith in sport as a whole. If I knew even a bit about cricket, theyd be telling me, if Id bothered researching even a little of its chequered history (which actually I have, so there), then Id realise such expectation levels were absurd from the very start.

Or, to put it more bluntly, if I seriously believed cricket was going to offer me a squeaky-clean, nicey-nicey alternative to football, then Im an idiot.

As I say, its a football-related experience thats taught me to be this wary, sporting-opinion-wise. Each week I co-host a football phone-in on my local station, BBC Sussex, which covers my own club, Brighton & Hove Albion. But according to some Brighton supporters I have no right to do this.

And whys that, you inquire, not unreasonably?Because I used to support Arsenal.

Now, I realise that switching allegiance is considered an unspeakable crime in football circles, but I could hardly be accused of glory-hunting. I swapped teams, way back in 2001, when Arsenal were actually doing rather well, simply because I hadnt been to Highbury in donkeys years (no Tony Adams pun intended). Weary of televised coverage, I just fancied going to regular matches again. And Brightons ground happens to be half an hours walk from my house.

Ive been a fully paid-up season-ticket holder there ever since. Thats nearly 10 years during which Ive experiencedtwo depressing relegations, two glorious promotions and an awful lot (very awful indeed in many cases) in between. Ive even converted my ! daughter .

Not good enough, apparently. Whatever I say, whatever I think, whatever opinions I express on air, or in print, in relation to Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (po-faced types always add the wholly superfluous words Football Club to the end of their teams name, youll have noticed, whenever theyre striving to lend gravitas to some soppy remark of theirs) are, in these peoples eyes, null and void. You cant, it seems, just start supporting a club when it suits you. You dont have the right.

What amuses me most about this mentality is that Brighton & Hove Albion, whove been forced for the past decade to play their home matches at a ropey council-owned athletics track surrounded by temporary seating, are finally building a spectacular new stadium,the result of a campaign thats lasted nearly 15 years. From a current capacity of just under 9,000, theyll suddenly be looking to fill up to 22,500 seats.

Brightons new stadium will have 13,500 more seats. But will new fans be expected to sit in silence?

By my calculations, that means there could be as many as 13,500 brand new Brighton & Hove Albion fans this time next year. Fans who, to all intents and purposes, will have crawled out of the woodwork.

So thats going to be a giggle, isnt it?

I take it these newcomers will, according to the die-hards, have no right to offer their opinions, positive or otherwise, by means of singing, yelling, calling the new striker a useless knob or what-have-you.I can hardly wait.

So, anyway, you can now see why Im so hesitant when it comes to offering my thoughts on the whole cricketing corruption thing. If football is anything to go by, Im years away, if not decades, from earning t! hat priv ilege.

In fact, Im still at the stage, to be honest, where I feel like a fraud just for shouting good shot when, say, Kevin Pietersen hits a boundary for England.

Not that hes ever likely to again, of course, the way that hopeless numptys playing right now.

Sorry, hush my mouth.

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