Pakistan have little international cricket over the next year, at the end of which Hair's contract runs out © Ian Jacobs / Cricinfo Ltd

It is the time of year for resurrections and Darrell Hair has risen again to delight his supporters and spread fear and anger among his enemies. What Hair's rehabilitation programme involved requires greater explanation from the ICC? But the decision to reinstate him has certainly reinforced the persecutory complex of Pakistan cricket.

I am sure Hair's reinstatement will be justified by some high principle but there is an alternative explanation. Hair is a habitual litigant. Pakistan have little international cricket over the next year, at the end of which Hair's contract runs out. From an employer's perspective it is far cleaner and more convenient to let the contract run its natural course instead of spending the next few years fighting a nasty legal case.

Any self-respecting CEO--be he a Speed or a Patel- would prefer the exit of least litigation. Mr Hair's return to elite umpiring, therefore, is more cop-out than conspiracy.

	Cricket Australia has failed to ensure the viability of the international tours programme, which is an abdication of leadership from the world's strongest cricket country © Getty Images

The fate of Australia's tour to Pakistan is sealed--or postponed as we are supposed to believe. I've already said my piece on why Australia should have toured Pakistan, and that argument still holds. Just ask Geoff Lawson, who has underlined the folly of the approach adopted by his fellow countrymen.

Ultimately, tours are the responsibility of the respective cricket boards. Cricket Australia has failed to ensure the viability of the international tours programme, which is an abdication of leadership from the world's strongest cricket country. As the general security situation in our world continues to deteriorate perhaps cricket will become extinct as countries refuse tours for unrelated risks? A truly global sport requires a stronger spine and broader vision.

The PCB is not blameless either. While Dr Ashraf and Co will state how powerless they are in the face of Cricket Australia's irrational decision, the decline of Pakistan cricket over this decade, both in performance and as spectacle, are contributory factors--although they never will be surfaced.

There is no value in a blindly patriotic defence of the PCB's position. Cricket is Pakistan's most important sport and public entertainment. Yet the PCB, through a combination of poor judgment and dubious ethics, has turned Pakistan cricket and the international team into something of a sideshow on the international stage. Some of this outcome is caused by distorted international perception but a major contributor is the chronic maladministration of cricket in Pakistan.

This is the latest in a long succession of wake-up calls for the PCB. Cricket in Pakistan needs urgent revival but it is not clear that the men in charge are fit to administer the shock therapy that is required.

	Why should cricket boards order you to play in IPL but punish you for choosing ICL? © Cricinfo Ltd

Consider me a Luddite but I'm getting rather fed up with this proliferation of cricket leagues. ICL, IPL, what the hell? However you look at it, these pantomimes are doing little more than milking the cash cow of cricket's popularity in India.

At some point, probably not too dissimilar to the point in last year's World Cup when most people stopped caring less, people in India--yes even India--will stop caring less. The advertisers, promoters, sponsors, and deal fixers will have to dream up a new concept. In fact, I've stopped caring less about these tournaments already, except for a mild curiosity about the prospects of the band of Pakistani rejects, better known as the Lahore Badshahs.

We should care, of course, because other than the glaring error of a stupid greed-inspired excess of cricket, there is a sinister element to this drama that we mustn't stop complaining about.

The obscene spectacle of cricket boards dictating to players about which league they can or cannot participate in has rightly been identified as an unfair restriction of trade. Why should cricket boards order you to play in IPL but punish you for choosing ICL? Why should a cricket board ban you from playing domestic cricket in your own country or any other country if you decided to trot out for the ICL?

The Pakistan Cricket Board, for example, has developed a myopic approach that seeks to prevent its cricketers from gaining experience in any domestic tournament other than its own miserable leagues and the fatuous IPL.

The cartel created by the cricket boards is an abuse of power. The arguments used to favour IPL and restrict cricketers if they disobey are simply the demoralising gestures of arrogant bullies. But you can't expect the ICC to help cricket boards see the light since cricket's governing body has such a restrictive attitude towards its own events, right down to dictating which brand of God's own water spectators are allowed to consume.

Indeed, this preference for the "official" IPL is a complete contradiction to the league's commercial aspirations. A true market perspective would allow both leagues to compete and allow the winner to be judged by the public. Instead, we have the dismal sight of the world's cricket boards justifying, enforcing, and licking their lips over the IPL monopoly while they condemn ICL as unnecessary, threatening, and illegal.

I am a big fan of Twenty20 cricket. I greatly enjoy the spectacle of cricket in India. But not like this. World Series Cricket propelled international cricketers towards professional salaries and rightly gave them some clout. This year's two-league circus is an exercise in corporate clout and shameless money-grabbing.

It is far too easy to wax lyrical about the noble spirit of cricket but the ICL/IPL fiasco is bringing out the worst in our modern game.