Inzamam-ul Haq was Pakistan's last all-powerful captain © AFP

Any tinge of happiness at Pakistan's Test series victory over New Zealand is rapidly vanishing courtesy of a farce orchestrated by the Pakistan Cricket Board. The national team's chances of winning the 2011 World Cup look wobbly enough without more self-inflicted damage.

Invariably, cricket boards know who their first choice captain is, especially so close to a major tournament. Often, the captain has some say in squad selection. While Pakistan's selection process has come to resemble a tin-pot dictatorship, the selection of a captain had not previously been in doubt - even if Shahid Afridi was to be snubbed at the last.

Now Afridi is no longer assured of the captaincy. He has either been too outspoken or too out of form to be named as he should have been. Only the PCB knows what it is playing at. Coach Waqar Younis' justified complaint about this strategy was met with a disciplinary charge. Benign dictatorships can be productive but malevolent ones are destructive.

Pakistan's last all-powerful captain, Inzamam-ul Haq, has now raised his voice against the cricket board's divide and rule policy. Indeed, this blog will record Inzi's words for posterity so that we can refer back to them in the dark days of the World Cup campaign:

"With only three weeks left to the World Cup, Pakistan have no captain and the blame goes to the PCB for creating an impasse which has divided the team into two groups, supporting Afridi and Misbah. In this scenario one cannot have high expectations for the team.

"The PCB has failed to control the situation and if Pakistan fares badly in the World Cup, people will accuse the players and not the board.

"When a team is without a captain how can a proper strategy be made? The team is playing a one-day series in New Zealand but they do not know who will be their captain in the World Cup which is very damaging."

The PCB has groomed a captain for this World Cup. His name is Shahid Afridi. He might have limitations, but, with senior colleagues around him, those can be overcome. The PCB needs to stop being precious about its own ego and start allowing Pakistan's World Cup campaign to take shape. The longer any doubt lingers over leadership, the harder it will be for the team to gather any momentum before this year's biggest tournament.

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Misbah-ul-Haq is yet to lose a Test since taking over the Pakistan Test captaincy © Getty Images

Test wins for Pakistan are rare pleasures. The last time they enjoyed two in succession was in 2005, and the wins were five months apart. The last time Pakistan won back to back Tests in a series was against Bangladesh in 2003. Four wins in the last twenty Tests speaks for itself.

Pakistan fans are long-suffering but never patient. Each twist and turn is dissected in microscopic detail. But despite innumerable setbacks, the only event to diminish their passion for cricket has been the demoralising spot-fixing drama of this last year.

Now, out of the wreckage of the scandal, Pakistan’s current team has emerged with surprising resilience. A seemingly decimated and dishevelled national squad has produced a creditworthy drawn series against South Africa followed by a rapid destruction of New Zealand in the first Test in Hamilton. Win or lose the final Test, Pakistan will only have lost one of their last four Test series — and that loss was possibly in the most traumatic series in Pakistan’s history.

In these difficult times, Pakistan’s Test statistics are worth pondering. For all the focus on limited-over internationals, and everybody’s assumption that the shorter form is Pakistan’s natural game, perhaps Test cricket offers a better route to salvation. Shahid Afridi’s preference for the shorter formats is understandable but is that best for Pakistan cricket?

A strong Test team offers a much firmer foundation for success in all formats, while players who excel at Twenty20 cricket often offer little in Test cricket. When Pakistan won the 1992 World Cup it was with attacking Test-style bowling. When Pakistan were a strong Test team in the 1980s and 1990s, they were also strong challengers for each World Cup.

The benefit of one-day cricket for Pakistan, in recent years in particular, is that it has helped gloss over the deficiencies in technique and temperament that can be exposed at Test level. As such T20 and ODI cricket have become the measures of success; Test cricket a neglected form.

Yet the preference for one-day cricket is damaging the resurrection of Pakistan cricket and a strong Test team should be the Pakistan Cricket Board’s top priority, above winning the next World Cup or T20 World Championship. Yes, we should want success in those tournaments but as a by-product of a strong Test team, not at the expense of it.

With the third best win/loss ratio in Test cricket, Pakistan have a record to be proud of, defend, and build upon — and that despite the calamity of the last decade. This statistic alone places Pakistan above India and South Africa in the all-time list, although some way behind Australia and England.

The recent consolidation in Test cricket — consolidation is all it is as wins have been few — might be brief but it suddenly exists. Pakistan aren’t a great side, they aren’t even yet a good side, but they have shown some resilience and a splash of potential. Whether this attitude has emerged in response to the adversity of last summer or thanks to the absence of bad influences, will only emerge in time. Still, it should remind Pakistan’s administrators and cricketers where their priorities should lie.

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If any of the players emerges with a career that can be rescued, Pakistan fans should consider that a bonus © Getty Images

Pakistan’s ex-cricketers are lining up to condemn a delay in the spot-fixing verdict. Zaheer Abbas, Asif Iqbal, Rashid Latif, and Sarfraz Nawaz have all joined the chorus. Yet they miss the point. It matters little whether or not these players are available for the next World Cup. How important is that tournament when the integrity of cricket and future of cricketers is at stake?

Above all, the verdict that Michael Beloff and his team reach must be a considered one based on the evidence that has been presented to them. They will understandably take some time to digest the events in Doha. At the end of that deliberation the verdict must be one that can be substantiated. Any verdict against the players will inevitably meet with an appeal, most likely against a process which the players and their legal representatives have already muttered about.

On the face of it — and a behind-closed-doors hearing doesn’t present much of a face —punishments can be expected. Salman Butt, in particular, must be dreading a life ban. Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir will be hoping that they have sufficiently distanced themselves from any evidence of corruption. But the ICC is clearly in no mood to allow the players to escape. If any of the players emerges with a career that can be rescued, Pakistan fans should consider that a bonus.

The players and the cricket world are in limbo until 5th February while lawyers mull what they have heard. In their hearts most Pakistan fans wish that Amir, at least, is somehow innocent. But smoke signals from Doha have not been encouraging, and the players look to have only earned a stay of execution.

The best supporters of Pakistan cricket, however, can only want a fair verdict. If any corrupt players are lost to international cricket then so be it.

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Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir and Salman Butt shouldn't be expecting friendly verdicts in Doha © Getty Images

In the middle of last year, three men held the future of Pakistan cricket in their hands. A young captain in command of possibly the most compelling new-ball partnership in world cricket. A triumverate that might save Pakistan cricket from implosion. Instead Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, and Mohammad Amir face calamity. Pakistan cricket is once more on the brink of disgrace.

The three players have responded to adversity in very different ways. Butt has been most vocal with shifting statements of bravado, innocence, and counter accusation. Amir has spoken up too, but generally to extract sympathy for his plight, describing the current proceedings as the toughest test of his career. Meanwhile, Asif has been monkish in his silence. The differences reflect their personalities to some degree but are probably most indicative of the legal advice they have received.

Their cricket board, for its part, after an embarrassment of bluster has virtually abandoned the defendants. Bluster comes easily to Pakistan cricket administrators and politicians, hence this dramatic change, after the intervention of the ICC to improve anti-corruption mechanisms within Pakistan cricket, presents a bleak outlook for Butt and his fellows. The present and future of Pakistan cricket forsaken on a nod, wink, and slap from the ICC.

With the reputation of Pakistan cricket about to be dragged through another gutter, whatever the outcome of the Doha tribunal, the cricket board should not be allowed to slip into the shadows so easily.

Players are responsible for their individual actions and, at the very least, for the friends they choose and whose advice they follow, but it is the PCB that facilitated the creation of a necrotic environment around the national team. The PCB and its chairman have survived this scandal relatively unscathed. Ironically, the instability of the current Pakistan government is a bigger threat to the current PCB regime than any sanction from ICC.

The Doha tribunal is the first test of the ICC's new anti-corruption code. Video recordings present worrying evidence against the players. Haroon Lorgat, ICC chief, is determined to flex his muscles. His organisation has never deviated from its determination to prosecute. What would be the ramifications for the integrity of international cricket of a failed case against spot-fixing? The ICC must have thought this one through, and supporters of the three cricketers should not expect good-news verdicts.

On the face of it, Butt is in the deepest trouble. He was the closest associate of Mazhar Majeed. Pakistan's bowlers were under his instruction. He had the most money in his room. Subsequently, Butt has made the most noise. His is the key verdict. If Butt is cleared then so must be his fellows. Equally, Butt could fall alone or earn the harshest punishment.

Asif's record of previous indiscretions, one of which is the reason why the hearing must be held in Doha and not Dubai, places him in a precarious position. Serial offenders, whatever the offences, can expect to be more severely punished. A further ban could leave Asif with insufficient time and heart to stage another comeback.

Which leaves Amir with the best prospect of leaving Doha with an opportunity of resurrecting his career in international cricket. Leaked testimonies of Waqar Younis and Shahid Afridi certainly suggest that possibility. The ICC can deliver life bans or less severe punishments depending on degree of involvement, and Amir will probably seek to argue complete ignorance of any spot-fixing arrangement even if that charge is proven against others.

Yet no true cricket supporter should seek clemency simply because of affection for Pakistan cricket or any individual cricketer. Nor should people seek punishment for the forsaken trio because of any distrust of Pakistan or its cricketers. A just verdict based on the evidence and devoid of emotion is essential.

Indeed, the three players are not the only ones on trial in Doha. By proxy, the PCB's failed system of governance is under scrutiny, as is the fairness of the ICC's new anti-corruption code. Whichever way Michael Beloff's hammer falls, one conclusion is predetermined: the integrity of cricket can only be further damaged by the events that will unfold in Doha.

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