WHO does Maurice Lindsay honestly think he's kidding? writes Chris Hall

This week the self-righteous Wigan chairman stunned everyone with more than the memory of a goldfish by calling for a dramatic reduction in the overseas quota to "develop the next Great Britain."

Apparently the current allowance of five overseas players per club -- which is being cut to three over the next couple of season - needs to be slashed to just two because our national side is suffering.

I wonder where he's been hiding this compassion while he's been flooding the Wigan ranks with high profile Antipodeans for the past three years.

In his two spells as the club's head honcho, Lindsay has proved one of the biggest exponents of the foreign signing.

He was the man responsible for bringing some of the game's all-time greats, including Frano Botica, Gene Miles, Kevin Iro, Dean Bell and Brett Kenny, to these shores in Wigan's hey day.

And since recovering the reins at the JJB Stadium, he has overseen the imports of Brett Dallas, Steve Renouf, Jamie Ainscough, Adrian Lam, Julian O'Neill, Matthew Johns, Craig Smith and David Furner.

Hardly the game's biggest Anglophile.

And when he left Wigan in 1992 to take over as chief executive of the rugby football league, what measures did he implement to slow the flow of imported players? None.

The fact is that after being dragged kicking and screaming under the salary cap, Maurice is starting to feel the pinch.

He has so many highly-paid British players that he can no longer afford any big name Aussies and most of his five quota players will be replaced by cheaper kids at the end of this season.

Now he wants to restrict the more sensible spenders to give his struggling overpaid stars a chance to be great again.

And he's not fooling anyone.

HOPEFUL: Stuart Raper