Defending the ICC in the face of the numerous charges put against its name by a thousand talking heads is neither the easiest nor the most fashionable of tasks. Nor does the game's governing body always deserve sympathy let alone support. A litany of cancelled meetings, weak referees, headstrong umpires and failed initiatives, and a reluctance to lift the stone under which iniquity lurks count as black marks in the ledger.

However it is idle to blame the ICC for every setback suffered by the game. Indeed it is merely the self-indulgence of those eager to impress admirers but unprepared to examine any issue in depth. Accordingly the ICC is blamed for everything from the foolishness of The Oval to the willingness of national captains to take bribes, from the bombs to the outbursts that arise every time a team does not get its way. Players, captains, umpires and the rest must stop looking for a convenient official to blame and start taking responsibility for a game they are supposed to love.

Don't hold your breath. Consider the conduct of constituent members. Not long ago England protested with feigned nobility about its obligation to play a cricket match in Harare. A few months later, and with breathtaking hypocrisy, the same grandstanders welcomed Zimbabwe to their own shores. Barely a murmur was heard from the usual suspects. Of course they did not say much about the massacre of the Ndebele in the 1980s. Perhaps they remembered the part their country had played in the rise of the Zimbabwean dictator.

Constant threat

A few years ago Australia saw fit to rap the knuckles of players guilty of accepting money from bookmakers. Much of the subsequent shenanigans might have been avoided had the Australian Board taken a stronger line. Nor has a stern enough eye been kept on ignorant spectators. Sri Lankan cricket is under constant threat from men able to manipulate elections.

And it goes on. Indian cricket spends more time in court than a petty thief. Meanwhile wood rots and steel rusts. South Africa has fled Colombo in the wake of a single incident. Moreover it has bestowed upon the highest office of the ICC an artful and unprincipled provocateur. The West Indies seems to imagine that 20-over cricket is going to save the day.

Past players walk around like latterday Napoleans. Pakistan protests too much. New Zealand refused to play in Nairobi. Zimbabwe's books remain unexamined, and the infamous Peter Chingoka now dominates the game across Africa. Kenyan and American cricket have been badly damaged by opportunists.

Not blameless

Nor are the players blameless. Grace has been as thinly spread as margarine in a prison. Cricket has endured as many scandals as cycling, athletics, horse racing and boxing. Hard to blame the authorities for all of them. Now and then a player does show the majesty often detected in Roger Federer, Brazil, Tiger Woods and elsewhere. Adam Gilchrist's refusal to linger, Andrew Flintoff's generosity in victory, Inzamam's magnanimity in defeat against India reminded all and sundry that, at its best, sport is sporting. Alas realpolitik soon returned.

Cricket is not the easiest of games to run. Colonialism, colour, civil wars, border battles and religious conflicts have seen to that. The waters are bound to be choppy. All the more reason to stop pouring oil on them. Cricket's reputation depends not upon lazily abused authority but upon the conduct of teams, players, coaches, umpires, spectators and commentators. The time for renewal has arrived. A game is all that it dares to be.

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