In 2006, Yousuf scored 1,788 runs from 11 Tests at an average of 99.33, beating Viv Richards's record for most runs in a calendar year that had stood for three decades. The following year he was named one of Wisden's 'Five Cricketers of the Year'. Silken strokes place him firmly in an aesthetic tradition that traces its roots to Ranjitsinjhi.

Now consider Younis Khan. With 5,260 runs from 63 Tests, he is at no. 5 in Pakistan's all-time list, behind only Miandad, Inzamam, Yousuf, and Saleem Malik. He has also been Pakistan's safest fielder with a rate of 1.06 catches per innings that is even better than Majid Khan's, and his overall tally of 67 catches places him behind only Inzamam and Miandad. Younis is a tenacious fighter who has played his heart out for his country.

In March 2005, he made 267 and 84 not out in Bangalore to tie the series. Four years after that he made 313 in Karachi, Pakistan's third triple-century only. In June 2009, he pulled off a miracle leading Pakistan to the world Twenty20 championship, mere weeks after terrorism in Lahore.

Both Yousuf and Younis have now been banned from playing for Pakistan. No credible reason has been given. The charges that the PCB has come up with are so vague that they wouldn't stand up in drawing room conversation, let alone in a court of law.Granted that the Akmal brothers had been acting up and needed a kick in the pants. Agreed that Shahid Afridi cheated in full view of international television audience and deserved a serious reprimand. Too bad about Rana Naveed and Shoaib Malik, but their punishments are only for one year and, let us be honest, they aren't exactly automatic selections. But Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan? These are Pakistani legends whose service to the country is beyond reproach.

If you step back and take a wide perspective, it is clear what is going on. PCB chairman Ijaz Butt, who has been in survival mode for months now, is making these players the scapegoat to divert attention from his own incompetence. Butt has been unable to manage Pakistan's cricket affairs and the whole enterprise is now unravelling before our eyes. For now, his beleaguered chairmanship is hanging by a thread, but it happens to be a pretty sturdy thread —the steadfast support of President Asif Ali Zardari, who is politically obliged to Butt's brother-in-law. Each day Butt continues in his position marks another nail in the coffin for Pakistan cricket.

The sport has shown great resilience thus far but you have to wonder how many nails it will take. Bewildered fans are asking how in the world we have arrived at this unbelievable mess. The answer lies in one thing and one thing only the mechanism to appoint the chairman of the PCB.

As with so much else that happened in Pakistan's early days, when the Pakistan Cricket Board (initially conceived as the Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan, or BCCP) was formulated, its founders looked to Britain for the blueprint. In those days the Marylebone Cricket Club, or MCC, looked after the affairs of cricket in the United Kingdom. Its patron was the reigning monarch, the Queen of England. Pakistan's early cricket administrators decided to make their patron the country's president, who is the monarch-equivalent in our parliamentary system.

Britain has since moved on, but Pakistan hasn't. In 1968, the MCC relinquished control of cricket in the UK. Its successor was the Test and Country Cricket Board, which became the England and Wales Cricket Board (shortened to ECB) in 1997. The ECB has no patron. It is led by a chairman who is elected by the ECB's board of directors from among a shortlist of candidates nominated by the first-class counties. The MCC, which is now a private members' club that owns Lord's cricket ground and remains guardian of the Laws of Cricket, also has a nominating vote.

In any case, the role of the British monarch, even in the days when the MCC controlled English cricket, was as a figurehead. Anyone suggesting the Queen interfered with the MCC's affairs would be laughed at. The reason? She has better things to do. Pakistan's president, apparently, does not. Our system for appointing the PCB chief has therefore been reduced to whoever can best ingratiate himself with the president in office. The skills required for this activity have little to do with the skills required to preserve, protect and promote Pakistan cricket.

Managing Pakistan cricket is a highly complex undertaking for which qualities such as flattery and ego-centricity are only detrimental. An effective PCB chief would have a mature outlook on life, understand management principles, have unblemished integrity, be flexible towards talented yet moody players, have a vision for the future, and find joy in contributing to the betterment of things above and beyond himself. There are many such people in Pakistan, but they are not equipped to elbow their way through the current chaos.

The result is the kind of bumbling buffoonery that we see in these ridiculous bans on Yousuf and Younis. Naturally, Pakistan's cricket preparations are now in disarray. On May 1, the team begins its defence of the World Twenty20 title in a match against Bangladesh at Gros Islet at St Lucia. Ideally, a carefully considered appointment needs to be made to replace the PCB chairman and reorient the body to serving Pakistan cricket, and not personal fancies.