THE spirit of cricket has died many times, and it has now died a further death. India’s cancellation of its tour of Pakistan is a purely political decision. Safety and security is an irrelevance, which makes neutral venues an irrelevance too. India, the self-appointed guardian of cricket’s conscience, has thus failed its most important test of conscience.

The Mumbai attacks have rightly generated much international sympathy for India’s grief, including from Pakistan. Yet in our modern world, countries near and far are targets and victims of atrocious violence. Blaming particular nations is a fool’s game and a mindless media hobby.India’s decision also smacks of double standards. While England were urged to return to India to show solidarity with India’s cricket and its people, Pakistan is hastily discarded: a victim twice over, first of violence and secondly of an international boycott.

This boycott of Pakistan cricket is unofficial yet widespread. It serves the purposes of the rich countries, which prefer to follow the money in international cricket. Meanwhile, it severely damages the fabric of international cricket itself, which is unsustainable in the long term if only a few countries end up playing each other repeatedly.

Pakistan’s position is weak, and some of it self-inflicted. The administrative failures of the last two decades have left Pakistan with a team that is no longer box office, and international venues that still produce dull cricket.

The possibility of neutral venues, however, offers Pakistan cricket a lifeline. This option might not appeal to Pakistan cricket fans or administrators but the current crisis requires pragmatism not idealism.

Most importantly, the international team must start playing regularly, otherwise Pakistan will quickly slip further down the rankings. If the only way of securing regular cricket is playing at neutral venues, agreeing to overseas tours, or finding alternative opponents then the Pakistan Cricket Board must seize those opportunities.

Importantly, Pakistan cricket must quickly emerge from India’s shadow. The first step into the light is financial independence, and if this requires playing away from Pakistan then so be it. The second is to build a team that is exciting and desirable on the international stage again.

The PCB must not take India’s decision lying down either. The matter should be taken up at the ICC and the hypocrisy of the international cricket community exposed — a community that dances too quickly to India’s financial tune, at the expense of less fortunate cricket nations and cricketers.

India fought a 30-year campaign to win control of international cricket, and it has more than achieved that aim. Yet leadership comes with responsibilities, and there is currently little to suggest that India intends to rule with wisdom and foresight. While there is mounting evidence that its motivating force is self-interest.

But fundamentally everything boils down to the quality of the Pakistan cricket team. When claims to the crown of international cricket ring hollow without beating Pakistan that is the moment that a tour of Pakistan will again be essential on the international circuit.