A week after the Lahore atrocity we are left without answers. Who were these attackers? How did they manage to annihilate the "security" forces? How did they all manage to escape unscathed? Instead of answers, we have witnessed unseemly and offensive posturing from the Pakistan Cricket Board and a perplexing silence from the President of Pakistan, who also happens to be the Patron of the PCB.

Apart from establishing the cause and the identity of the attackers, the main objective must be to dream up a formula that avoids the isolation of Pakistan cricket and nurtures an environment that facilitates the return of international teams. It is hard to understand how the approach of the PCB chairman, Ijaz Butt, is enabling any of those desirable outcomes? The tragedy of the Lahore attacks is followed by a frightening realisation that the salvation of Pakistan cricket lies in the hands of Butt.

Aakash Chopra's recent blog explained what presidential level security really is. It highlighted the complaints of match officials and the evidence of our own eyes that security was woefully inadequate. Instead Butt defended the security presence. Policemen died, is his limp argument. Nor will he accept any responsibility for the security arrangements, choosing to pass the buck to the Pakistan government. Yet he expects international cricket to return to Pakistan in six to nine months. How?

With all this nonsensical chest-thumping, Butt simply exposes his own inadequacies in heading an organisation of immense national importance. Frankly, no cricket board could contemplate sending a team to Pakistan while the PCB is under Butt's self-deluded leadership. Butt and Javed Miandad are confusing patriotism with insult. There is no pride in defending incompetent security arrangements and berating victims of a terrorist attack.

The only clear answer we have had this week is that the current PCB management and the Pakistan government are, surprise surprise, ill equipped to deal with this calamity. Not even a single official has offered to resign despite the catastrophic failings. How will these organisations inspire the confidence of a sceptical international cricket community when they can't even convince supporters of Pakistan cricket? How hard can it be to find a few good men of competence and common sense to shepherd Pakistan cricket back from the wilderness?

As with much of this decade of Pakistan cricket, it only ever gets worse.

The attack on Sri Lanka's cricketers has left the world in shock, Pakistan cricket in exile, and cricket across South Asia in jeopardy. The single most edifying feature has been the dignity of Sri Lanka's cricketers in response to an incident that could have cost them their lives, and caused several of them injuries. But the single most upsetting fact is the role of Pakistan's security arrangements in enabling this calamity.

Yesterday's events and the ease with which the attackers rained bullets and then escaped did not equate with "presidential level" security. How could the assailants take on security forces in this manner for many minutes and then flee unharmed? The conclusion that is emerging is that the security arrangements and performance were criminal in their negligence. A view supported today by Chris Broad, a man known for speaking his mind without fear of causing offence.

All credit to him. I share his anger. This was the highest profile sporting event in terms of ensuring its safe passage, and it had been promised the highest level of security. Clearly, this did not happen. Such a disastrous security failure is either a conspiracy or a murderous case of negligence. Either way it has plunged the reputation of Pakistan to an all time low. All Pakistanis who care about the reputation of their country should be indignant.

The PCB and the Pakistani Government have some serious questions to answer. But who will hold them accountable?

	The darkest day in Pakistan's cricket history © AFP

Today's attack on Sri Lanka's cricketers is a despicable act, a coward's agenda. Nobody should lose their life over a game of cricket, and no sportsman, official, or spectator should be injured in pursuit of the game they love.

The sole purpose of this barbaric act is a craving for the oxygen of publicity. There can be little political or strategic mileage to be gained by an attack on sportsmen. Indeed, we can only hope that such mindless violence will deeply damage the cause of the perpetrators, and precipitate their rapid downfall.

Brave Sri Lanka did not deserve this insult, and all sympathies are with their players and the officials who have been injured. Questions will inevitably be asked about the security arrangements, despite the regrettable deaths of several policemen. How could such a high profile tour have been allowed to have been ruined in this way? What do Pakistani security guarantees count for?

The least of the consequences of this disaster is that those who have advocated the continuation of international cricket in Pakistan - including me - have been proved wrong. No international team will now visit Pakistan, and the Pakistan Cricket Board should voluntarily arrange all future tours at neutral venues for the next year, may be longer.

This the darkest day in the history of Pakistan cricket and it occurred in a pleasant suburb of Lahore, a once great city of gardens and tranquility, not far from my own family home in Pakistan.

This is the end.

	The plummeting trajectory of Pakistan cricket has claimed Mohammad Yousuf as a major victim © Getty Images

The Pakistan Cricket Board is inquiring again into the circumstances of the forfeited Test at The Oval in 2006. It is an inquiry without a clear purpose. The match is now recorded as a technical defeat but the result is an irrelevance.

Although it was a moment when Pakistan cricket fought its corner in the world of cricket politics, two consequences have caused immeasurable damage. First, the rift between Inzamam-ul Haq and Bob Woolmer became ever wider. Second, the controversy ushered in Naseem Ashraf's disastrous reign as head of Pakistan cricket.

It was also the year that Mohammad Yousuf claimed the record number of Test runs in a year. Yousuf batted beautifully. He was easy on the eye yet his mind was tough. He was unbeatable and unswerving in his commitment to score more runs. The best years of his career were upon us. But the plummeting trajectory of Pakistan cricket has claimed him as a major victim.

Yousuf has done himself few favours. He has harboured a thinly veiled grudge over the cricket board's failure to appoint him as captain. His decision to turn to the ICL was rash and career threatening. And now, it is hard to imagine that his decision to see out his ICL contract is driven by principle rather than self interest.

Nonetheless, Yousuf has just cause for complaint. The purge of religion from Pakistan's team identified him as its most obvious target, and Shoaib Malik failed to bind his senior colleagues--and most notably Yousuf--to his cause. Too quickly, Yousuf moved from being indispensable to being yesterday's man, when his form and ability merited a greater respect and expectation.

The greatest failing, however, is that the Pakistan Cricket Board, like all other international cricket boards, slavishly followed the BCCI's lead in condemning ICL cricketers to a career without recognition or international cricket. Hence, whether Yousuf has arrived at his position through laziness or greed, the central point is valid: Why should players be unable to hold ICL contracts and play international cricket?

If there is an inquiry that the PCB needs to conduct with urgency it is one that questions the legitimacy of the stance of its fellow cricket administrations. Indeed, Pakistan cricket has lost more current international cricketers than any nation to ICL. How long will this abuse of cricketers and their international careers be allowed to continue without a serious challenge? This may not have been Mohammad Yousuf's intention but it should become the cause that reunites Pakistan cricket and gives the new cricket board immediate credibility.

	Pak Spin: 'He [Saleem Malik] should have no part to play in international cricket' © PA Photos

It seems there is no limit to the wonky logic that pervades Pakistan's cricket administration. The decision to lift the ban on Saleem Malik was barely supported by a whisper of reasonable argument. If that wasn't unprincipled enough, the Pakistan Cricket Board looks to have endorsed his redemption by appointing him head coach of the national academy.

Malik was a magical cricketer, sublime wrists and an eagle's eye made him a joy to watch. Imran Khan labelled him a flat-track bully but Malik outgrew those jibes to become a batsmen for a crisis. Yet he became the biggest victim of Pakistan's match-fixing inquiry, a career ended prematurely in disgrace.

The Pakistan Cricket Board's decision, if indeed it is that, is a moment of genuine sadness. Any semblance of ethical or moral responsibility has been discarded by the PCB. An appointment of this kind could only be made by an organisation devoid of integrity.

Indeed, the PCB is not the only organisation to muddle its principles. The England and Wales Cricket Board made the silly decision of hiring Mushtaq Ahmed as its spin bowling advisor. Mushtaq, for all his Sussex excellence and born-again piety, is another cricketer tainted by Pakistan's match-fixing controversy.

Mushtaq may argue that he has a stronger case for clemency than Malik. But Malik's case looks clear cut to me: he should have no part to play in international cricket. The tragedy is that Ejaz Butt's PCB seems to have done the unthinkable with unthinking, indecent haste.