The ICC looks to have lost control of the governance of the game and its ordered global development © Getty Images

The drum beats of the World T20 are beginning to sound. The last gripping tournament already seems a distant memory. World cricket has been transformed in these last two years as has the political situation in Pakistan. While the English media talk of this world tournament as little more than a precursor to the Ashes series that will follow, Pakistan cricket will view the next few weeks with the utmost importance.

My hope is that the World T20 will restore some perspective, some romance and fascination. We do now have a glut of fixtures and contests, and this development has been too fast, too haphazard, and driven too much by greed. Worse still, the ICC looks to have lost control of the governance of the game and its ordered global development. Cricket's administrators and television companies have lost sight of what is important.

By comparison, football has bowed to some degree to similar pressures but it has managed to preserve a sense of theatre and surprise. FIFA, for all its stifling bureaucracy, manages to enforce a rigid order which means that no national association is bigger than the sport's governing body. Cricket has suffered the rule of the English and Australians, and now sits at the mercy of India. Such individual force is a bigger problem in cricket than football. No country should be bigger than the sport.

Cricket's world is smaller than football's, a few nations playing repeatedly against each other, a few players reliving familiar combats. A glut in football can be accommodated by the sheer number of top-level participants. A glut in cricket removes the thrill and surprise of the game, and ultimately removes viewers and spectators.

Take this week's European Champions' League final for example. Despite the volume of matches played this year across Europe, Barcelona's contest with Manchester United carried the excitement of the unknown, and the delicious taste of a sporting treat--indeed, doubly so for me and my fellow supporters of Liverpool.

Cricket is in danger of overkill, and the IPL and its imitators in other countries are playing a major part. We require a formula that preserves the novelty of encounters. The familiarity of combatants will breed contempt among viewers.

I am a fan of T20 and to my surprise I enjoyed last year's IPL tournament. I have been unable to watch this year's tournament because my concern is that Pakistan and its cricketers are being systematically marginalised by certain elements of the international cricket community. The removal of Pakistan's champions from the planned T20 Champions League tournament is further evidence to support that view. I find it hard to watch tournaments from which Pakistan's players have been deliberately excluded.

The final responsibility for this disorder in world cricket must rest with the ICC. The game we love is being devalued. This is not the fault of T20 or cricketers. It is the fault of administrators, television moguls, and businessmen, to whom short-term financial returns matter more than a long-term vision of a successful sport. This is the cricket crunch that will lead to a collapse in viewers and eventually funding. Who will put the brakes on this mismanaged juggernaut heading for a crash?

	The PCB's press release is designed to cause Shoaib Akhtar maximum embarrassment © PA Photos

You might argue that transparency is King, and that the PCB has a tradition of being unnecessarily secretive. Unfortunately, Pakistan cricket also has a long history of damaging leaks and official gaffes.

Now, it isn't a great surprise that Shoaib Akhtar is once more unfit to play in a tournament that he has been selected for. It may not be a great surprise to some who have tut-tutted over Shoaib's lifestyle that he has picked up a dose of genital warts. Nonetheless, like every patient, Shoaib deserves his privacy and today's public announcement is way too much information.

It is hard not to draw the conclusion that the PCB's press release is clearly designed to cause Shoaib the maximum embarrassment. It is wrong to divulge personal medical information in this way and, unless it was done with Shoaib's consent, it is a breach of medical ethics. This is an embarrassing illness that should embarrass the PCB about its behaviour.

It might be legally flawed or it might not but the ICC's decision to withdraw World Cup matches from Pakistan was hardly a surprise. The simple fact that sets Pakistan's situation apart from other troubled countries is that the Pakistani authorities promised presidential level security but failed to provide it. There might be conflict in the rest of Asia but none of Pakistan's neighbours has made empty security promises. It is a situation without a saving grace or a get-out-of-jail card.

Under these circumstances, it is hard to see any cricketer or cricket board trusting the PCB and the Pakistan Government in the immediate future. This depressing reality will be hard to accept for Pakistan fans, especially those who will be cheering on the PCB's latest legal battle.

But the PCB's complaint will produce no winners, nor will it persuade anybody to tour Pakistan. The only beneficial outcome for Pakistan cricket might be that the ICC could be forced to put together a hefty compensation package. Either way, this legal stupidity will add further evidence to the view held by potential tourists that the PCB has lost touch with reality.

Instead, the PCB should push for Pakistan's matches to be relocated to Dubai and UAE. Yes, all Pakistan cricket fans want international teams to return but that is a misplaced hope for the next World Cup considering the current conflict within Pakistan. Now is the time for pragmatism, and relocation is the PCB's best option.

Now is also the time to make sure that all PCB communications are professionally prepared. The quality of the statement issued by Ijaz Butt suggests that it had not been vetted by the PCB's England-based lawyers. A strange process considering that the PCB is launching a highly controversial, high profile legal case? But then attention to detail, proper process, and political judgment are attributes that this current PCB regime has been especially incapable of mastering.

Pakistan have announced their T20 World Cup squad. Much of the squad picks itself, a couple are new and unexpected, one at least is a surprise omission (Iftikhar Rao, a regular in Pakistan's squad over the last two years), while at least another is lucky to be included on reputation (Shoaib Akhtar). Indeed, a typical Pakistani selection.

I am surprised and disappointed, however, that no escapees from the ICL have been included. Anybody who saw Imran Nazir's brutal innings in last year's ICL final will wonder how he missed selection? Other players, such as Abdul Razzaq and Mohammad Yousuf, will have hoped for a recall to national duty.

Now you might well argue that none of these ICL ex-cons has a decent case for selection. You might also argue that they chose to line their pockets instead of lining up for their country. Nonetheless, the PCB had an opportunity to resurrect an international career or two, and it missed it. This failure of nerve is especially unwelcome as the PCB has been threatening defiance on behalf of its ICL cricketers, exciting players who might now never return to international cricket.

PS Well done to all you eagle-eyed readers who spotted that Sohail Tanvir is in the squad. Thanks--and what a relief. Well done Mr Qadir.

Pakistan fans should not be too despondent at their team's defeat to Australia. Playing any international sport occasionally puts you at a disadvantage and that's before we consider the issue of neutral venues.

Most importantly, Pakistan managed to play out a scheduled series without disruption, and a blueprint has been established for the survival of Pakistan cricket until the domestic environment improves.

Had it not been for their traditional batting frailty, Pakistan would have easily won this series against a weakened Australian team. But batting skills probably suffer most from any absence from the international circuit.

As Pakistan showed in two of the matches, it is possible to gloss over frailties and lack of match practice in the shorter forms of cricket. When Pakistan return to Test cricket we will then know the true extent of their plight.

Nonetheless, it is important to take positives from this series. In particular, the spin combination of Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal helped Pakistan remain competitive throughout.

Afridi, now certainly a senior statesman, extracted more turn than he usually has. We will need more evidence before we can decide if it was the environment or Abdul Qadir's influence. Ajmal impressed too, and if he can avoid a damning verdict from ICC's technical committee he will be an important addition to Pakistan's squad.

On the batting front, there was little of genuine cheer other than the final match-winning partnership between Kamran Akmal and Misbah-ul-Haq, which helped Pakistan succeed from a position that usually sees them fail.

For many fans, Akmal's presence in the team defies the logic of his performances but he occasionally produces an innings of this nature that makes you wonder how valuable he could be if he could master both his trades at once.

Misbah, too, has flattered to deceive in his own way, often taking Pakistan to the brink of victory but succumbing to stupidity on the threshold of an individual triumph. Here both men held their nerve to finish the series with a respectable result for Pakistan.

The future, provided that it includes regular international cricket and the return of Pakistan's ICL cricketers, can be viewed with a degree of confidence by Pakistan. Indeed, Younis Khan's team should be able to develop into a potent force in limited overs cricket. It is in the Test arena that their lack of opportunities will hurt them.