Back in the mid-nineties, around the time rugby was going open, some of the old-school Murrayfield administrators were awfully touchy.

I was editor of Scottish Rugby Magazine at the time and I have a particular memory of being invited to their headquarters to discuss their concerns about the tone of our coverage.

Their main spokesman of the time was someone who did eventually realise just how amateurish they had been - he ultimately made substantial efforts to help the transition process towards becoming truly professional - so I will spare his blushes and preserve his anonymity.

In any case, I listened a while to his vague generalisations but eventually became fed up and pressed him to be more specific with examples of what was upsetting him.

After a bit of humming, hawing and harrumphing, he eventually spat it out: "Well that Tighthead Tam fellow is always having a go at the administrators and sometimes it is very unfair."

For those unhappy few who were not avid readers of SRM back then, Tighthead Tam was a cartoon character based on the sort of stereotypical Neanderthal prop forward who views the world with a rather jaded, simplistic eye.

Cut to last week and some complaining by Roddy Smith, the chief executive of Cricket Scotland, about my column questioning the decision to ask young Calum MacLeod to come up from Warwickshire only for the teenager to be left out of the team which met Kenya.

In it I referred to a widespread view within the sport that some of the senior players have too much say in the selection of the side.

That, though, was not Roddy's main concern. Instead he homed in on a sentence which observed that "conspiracy theories always abound when it comes to selection matters of course and some even believe Roddy Smith, Cricket Scotland's chief executive, plays a major role in selection which, if true, would be nothing short of farcical".

Even after it was explained to Roddy what the term "conspiracy theory" meant, Roddy persisted, claiming that "by writing what he has done, the majority of people will believe it".

As flattering as that would be, had it been presented as fact, surely "the majority of people" do not believe Richard Nixon authorised the shooting of JFK; that the Apollo programme was staged on a Hollywood back lot; or that a big warehouse in the Nevada desert houses strange spacecraft and embalmed funny wee men.

Yet Roddy persisted, so in the interests of fairness, I readily record his protest which stated that: "I have no say whatsoever in selection and it is the duty of the selection panel to do all of this - without any input from me whatsoever." Before he added that to suggest as much is "totally and utterly incorrect".

After some prompting, he also refuted the suggestion that the senior players have too much say, insisting that a four-man selection panel picks the squad. Thereafter it is down to coach and captain on the day. So, to the many supporters, media men and even people associated with Cricket Scotland who have said otherwise to me this season, I must report that Roddy is adamant that this is how it happens.

Of course Cricket Scotland is far from an elite sporting operation and is unused to much in the way of public scrutiny but it will have to become so if it is successful in its plans to build on the commercial success of Monday's meeting with England that we outlined in Midweek Sport yesterday.

With more funding due from the International Cricket Council they are aiming to get more and more of the best young home-based players on to full-time contracts. At present they rely on English counties to give opportunities to a handful, while the rest prepare for international cricket while holding down jobs.

This week's big match offered a reminder of the relative resources when nine support staff accompanied just six England players practising at The Grange on Sunday.

As in other sports, Scottish cricket must be creative and dynamic if it is to come up with a long-term plan that will allow it to compete with much wealthier rivals.

In rugby, it took a revolution and the removal from office of the dinosaurs to create an environment in which that had a chance of happening.

There are other sports, though, in which significant change has been achieved through evolution thanks to strong leadership.

Maybe, then, Roddy Smith is the man to lead Cricket Scotland forward as the organisation tries to become properly professional. If so though, chunky lad that he already is, he will have to grow a thicker skin ... or perhaps just apply a couple of coats of linseed oil.