By withdrawing their notice from the ICC they surely must have realised that any court action could have been an exercise in futility.

They were ill-advised in the first place and they should have known that after the ICC Champions Trophy was taken away from them for security reasons, there was no hope in hell for them to host a World Cup or to have its COC Secretariat in Pakistan after the terrorist attack on the visiting Sri Lankans last March.

The merits of their case were very little to say the least which their appointed lawyers Mark Gay in England had found out but not before a heavy purse was reported to have been paid to them in a desperate bid to at least have their due share if not the matches.

Which indeed will see them through at least for some time if the millions of dollars given for hosting rights earlier and another huge sum promised as a settlement is not wasted as has been the case previously by the board officials for lack of their accountability by the government machinery.

A couple of cases in which the PCB was involved overseas however had its merit and were decided entirely or partially in favour of the PCB.

The first which comes to mind was during the 1992 tour to England when Pakistani pace aces Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were accused of ball-tampering and so was Pakistan for using dicey tactics with the ball to gain advantage against England.

An irate English journalist Simon Heiffer wrote a defamatory piece titled ‘The Pariahs of Cricket’ in the Sunday Telegraph, calling all kinds of names in an effort to condemn Pakistan’s win over England.

Luckily, we had a very conscientious manager on tour in Khalid Mahmood who challenged the writer and the paper which resulted in an out-of-court settlement with Pakistan receiving a handsome amount in costs and damages.

The other occasion was when Pakistan forfeited The Oval Test of 2006 after being accused of ball-tampering mainly because of umpire Darrell Hair’s misadventure and also through Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and through the failure of the PCB officials present their to sort the problem out.

Mark Gay & Co was involved. In that instance also the matter did not end in court. In fact, the ICC – realising the gravity of the situation – did make an effort to make sure Pakistan’s grievances were heard by the chief referee and a committee which exonerated Pakistan of the allegations.

That was all in the past but what is really worrying for all of us who love this game is another controversy which has surfaced recently, that of the PCB failing to fulfil their promise to the Sri Lankans for developing turf pitches in a 135-year-old school in Colombo.

The Pakistan High Commissioner in Colombo is reported to have contacted the foreign ministry after a complaint by Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama’s reminder.

Wonder what the real story is but it certainly is no less embarrassing for all of us. The sooner this is sorted out the better it would be for the much criticised PCB which is indeed in urgent need of a facelift.

Even the chairman of the National Assembly’s Standing committee on Sports Jamshed Ahmed Dasti has urged the Presidency to take appropriate action over it. So far as we know all those standing committee’s effort to bring some sanity into the PCB affairs have gone on deaf ears.

We kept on listening to all the rhetorics from the former senator Enver Baig and Col. Mashhadi every time they invited the PCB officials Dr Nasim Ashraf and Shaharyar M. Khan which came to really nothing.

Now Jamshed is at it we will have to wait and see how influential he turns out to be.

The Auditor General’s report on PCB accounts is still waiting to see the light. It has been handed over to the PCB, Sports Ministry about three months ago and now we have been told that it is with the President.

I am waiting to hear if it is going to be passed on to Pentagon to protect a few. It has also come to notice that the report has been tampered with to protect a number of men from the government who were involved with the PCB before being shown the door.

Sadly, we live in a culture of deceit, deception and corruption at all levels, the reason why the ordinary man in the street has so far not been able to have proper amenities of life like electricity, water and top of that the day-to-day lawlessness in every strata of our society.

There we can’t blame but our system which has so far disappointed us in every sphere.

And how about that monstrous structure in the Gaddafi Stadium opposite the pavilion built as a gladiatorial stand rather than a cricket enclosure, costing the PCB a reported 40 crore rupees.

What happened to those architects who built it pocketed the money for the work which thankfully is only half done.

One hopes that all that big purse that the PCB is in possession is spent on sensible and cricketing projects from which at least we are able to save our face from people who now believe that we are only a bunch of nincompoops and nothing else.