CERTAINLY, I have written more than enough about India's tour of Pakistan and made known my views. There is very little else for me to write except, perhaps, that it was insulting to see Dean Jones arriving at the ground in a donkey cart.

Had it not been for the ears, it would have been hard to tell the difference between him and the donkey. Was it meant to provide a light moment or to be funny? I found it neither.

The most charitable construction that I can put on it is that it was buffoonery. I thought it had been in poor taste when he had delivered his weather report from "the air conditioned comfort of the chairman's box" but the donkey cart bit showed how little respect he had for a country that was his host.

It is entirely possible that I have no sense of humour or that I am too sensitive but I did not see it as good, clean fun. I am surprised that the producer of the telecast permitted it, unless it was his idea. Ten Sports only got the rights to telecast the matches, it did not get the rights to make fun of Pakistan.

I don't think it would serve any purpose to hold any inquiries into the Indian series performance, or, debacle, as some would want to put it. But I do think there is a need to set up some kind of commission to look at Pakistan's cricket culture.

It is personality-oriented not team-oriented. Such a commission could be headed by someone like Justice Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim and could include such wise heads and devoted cricket fans (but detached) who are respected in their own fields and they could look at the game from a view beyond that of the PCB, as something that impacts on national pride and as a healthy social activity and how grass-roots participation can be created.

Last week, I made a general statement that some of the money earned from the India tour could be used to fund cricket in the poorer areas and among children who live across the railway tracks, on the other side of affluence. I had suggested a committee of social workers. I got a very positive response. I think this is well worth pursuing.

I know from personal experience having been involved with cricket nurseries, first through the generosity of funds and spirit of Khawar Butt and then of Ghous Akbar. These nurseries were open to children of both private and government schools.

It was the children of government schools that I found the more determined to have fun, to romp around chasing plastic cricket balls. I would speak to their teachers and they would tell me how much these outings meant to the children and they would ask me if they could send more and more children.

I know that Shaharyar Khan reads this column but I am hoping that the patron of PCB will also read this and will lend his support to the suggestion. There is a lot of energy out there and which we can tap into and get our children off the streets and onto playing fields. The idea is not to find cricket talent, if we do, that is a bonus, but provide healthy recreation to a few more than have it at the moment.

I have not been following what is going on in Zimbabwe because I was too focused on the India-Pakistan matches. But it looks as if Zimbabwe cricket is falling apart. One cannot help feeling that a kind of reverse racism is at work.

It is not a coincidence that almost all the white players have downed tools. We first saw signs of this in the World Cup 2003 when Andy Flower left the team for greener pastures, as it transpired, but made a defiant gesture to indicate his political opposition to Robert Mugabe.

England had refused to play in Zimbabwe. It didn't work fully then because all other teams including Australia did play there. Once again, England was due to tour Zimbabwe and the ICC had threatened to fine the ECB heavily or even ban it if it did not fulfil its contractual obligations. But if Zimbabwe does not have a cricket team, how can there be a cricket tour?

Zimbabwe cricket was in a stage of transition. Black players were being inducted slowly but it relied heavily on the white players to keep up some kind of an international standard. I cannot see how the ICC can intervene in what is an internal dispute.

After all Heath Streak did resign on what seems flimsy reasons, he wanted changes in the selection committee and if all the white players are in sympathy with him, what can anyone do about it? It gets curiouser and curiouser.

I am reminded, in a way, of the last ditch stand that was adopted by England's cricket establishment to save White South Africa from expulsion from international cricket. It had argued that politics should be kept out of sports. I had written a number of articles for The Guardian in which I had pointed out that apartheid was neither sports nor politics.

Unless the matter in Zimbabwe is resolved, Test cricket may have to be re-structured for Zimbabwe will not be able to put up a team that will be any better than a club team. Perhaps, the change is long over-due.

There should be two divisions in Test cricket. The top four making up a first division and the others second division and a system of promotion and relegation. Cricket makes more sense when it is a contest between equals or near-equals.

I have just read that Shoaib Akhtar has left for Mumbai to shoot a television commercial. What happens to the medical inquiry that has been set up to determine the extent and nature of his injury/injuries? Are we planning to put up Hamlet without the ghost?