The sad and dismaying news concerning alleged spot fixing and possible match fixing in international cricket casts a shadow over both domestic and international cricket.

For the second time during the UK domestic season, players from Pakistan are central to police investigations. Ironically, the first of these cases involves a player (Danish Kaneria) axed from the current Pakistan squad a month ago who, alongside an Essex county colleague, is alleged to have been involved in spot fixing in a domestic English limited overs game. Spot fixing is likewise one of the accusations being levelled against the Pakistan players, notably its strike bowlers Mohammed Amir and Mohammed Asif.

The implications of the charges levelled, if proven, are massive both for international cricket and Pakistan cricket. Although many UK domestic fans will feel sad for Stuart Broad and Jonathan Trott regarding the integrity of their astonishing eighth wicket record partnership in the Fourth Test Match of the just-completed series between England and Pakistan, the real concerns should be for the future integrity of the game and the degree to which players’ naivety and greed will further be exposed by those offering riches to players willing to please their often dubious paymasters.

Pakistan is not the only country to have had players embroiled in betting controversies before, but the depth and longevity of doubt concerning Pakistan players is greater than that of any current Test-playing nations, despite a major inquiry into earlier allegations concerning the activities of star players including Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Saeed Anwar under Chief Justice Qayyam. For a cricketing nation deprived of international cricket within its own borders, these latest charges are a hammer blow to the national game that provides a unifying force and distraction to domestic hardship exacerbated by the ongoing floods. With cricket having surpassed both polo and hockey as the nation’s favourite sport, the possibility of up to seven players of the current national side, including the national captain and its star player (Mohammed Amir), being implicated in a scam will set the game back many years.

Furthermore, the England and Wales Cricket Board is now less likely to wish to host Pakistan Test Matches as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) continues to seek an alternative venue to the United Arab Emirates, which also has a history of cricketing events being scarred by match fixing. If the charges are proven and players duly punished, Pakistan’s ability to compete with the leading Test playing nations will be undermined and the national side will, by default, enter a second tier of Test cricket where it will have to compete with cricketing nations such as the West Indies and Zimbabwe, who possess weak, and in the latter’s case, a governing body just starting to overcome the worst excesses of the corrupt Mugabe regime.

For Pakistan, one of the chief issues to address is the independence of its governing board, the PCB. If it is freed from remorseless political pressure and the petty politicking that has dragged it down for so many years, confidence, continuity and trust could be re-established in a body that can play a major role in rehabilitating both domestic cricket and the tarnished reputation of the national side. This means that politicians need to distance themselves from the sport and learn not to exploit it for largely their own short-term gain.