The end of the Empire

Might is right, as people love saying in Asia. But when the mighty are humbled - like VVS Laxman being bowled by Junaid Zia - it can be a bewildering experience all round. English cricket must be bewildered at its ultimatum from ICC. "Hang on a minute, chaps, we did invent this game didn't we?" mutter the men in striped MCC ties.

Perhaps the executives at the ECB are too proper to have watched a grubby Quentin Tarantino movie, but if they watch one they will realise that putting a gun to people's heads has been in fashion for quite a while. Something similar has just happened in Auckland. For the ECB to be so bullied is an incredible moment in the history of international cricket, the moment when this peculiarly British game was finally wrestled away by its Empire.

Yet there is a double hypocrisy at play here. The original sin was an English one. To host Zimbabwe and then hide behind morality was shamelessly self-serving. If England had refused Zimbabwe's visit they would now have attracted greater sympathy for their own stance. Compounding this astonishing behaviour by making a moral defence was sheer folly.

Using a moral or ethical threshold to decide on a cricket tour might mean you end up playing nobody and nobody plays you. Morals vary by culture and country. Much of the cricketing world, for example, might question the morality behind the Iraq war. Again, if the ECB had simply stated that its decision to boycott Zimbabwe was a political one, it would have emerged with greater honour. The morality business was always a road to nowhere.

India, by contrast, has always made clear that its decision to avoid Pakistan for so long was political. No hiding behind morals here - hats off to India. But that exposes the second hypocrisy, which lies at the door of the ICC. Why come down so hard on England when India has been treated so gently for so long? The answer, of course, does not lie in any distinction between morality and politics, however reasonable that may sound.

The real reason is that in terms of international cricket, politics and economies, the mighty have now become the weak. The child the English raised has grown into a monster, out of control. The will of the ICC as expressed by its Asian and African members is all mighty, and the ECB will be pulped from now until the demographics of cricket change.

But the Asian in me feels no pleasure or triumph at England's plight. A cricket board should not be asked to make a political decision or invent a cover story for one. Moreover, a highly politicised, unfettered administration that seeks redress for historical wounds, which the ICC must make sure it does not become, can be blind to its shortcomings and paradoxical prejudices - just look at Robert Mugabe's regime. More balance and less hypocrisy is required at the game's highest level. And more responsibility for decision-making is required from politicians, which - right or wrong - is exactly what the Indian government was prepared to do.