ECB should have ignored financial issues and pulled plug on this tour

"The Board and the team are of a view that it remains in the best interests of world cricket, the players and in particular of cricket supporters that the tour should continue," read the statement.

"It would set a dangerous precedent to call off a tour based on the misguided and inaccurate remarks made by one individual," it concluded, referring to comments by Ijaz Butt, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, that England's players deliberately threw Friday's third one-day international at The Oval in response to fresh allegations of Pakistani malpractice.

It was difficult to know what was more disgraceful.

Butt's outburst, which rendered him even more of a laughing stock than he was previously, or the ECB's insistence that "it remains in the best interests of world cricket, the players and in particular of cricket supporters that the tour should continue".

A more accurate statement from the governing body would surely have read:

"The Board are of a view that it remains solely in our best financial interests that the tour should continue.

"Although we appreciate the tour long since became a laughing stock, and that no one can believe any more the cricket they are watching, our financial priorities are more important than the best interests of world cricket, the players and in particular of cricket supporters."

There may have been more controversial tours in cricket history, but it is difficult to recall a more morally bankrupt or damaging one.

From the moment allegations of spot-fixing against Pakistan surfaced during last month's fourth Test at Lord's, when it was claimed the tourists deliberately bowled no-balls in a conspiracy to defraud bookmakers, the tour has gone from bad to worse.

The bails had barely been removed following the third one-day international than the International Cricket Council confirmed they were investigating alleged irregularities in scoring patterns during the Pakistan innings, the prelude to Butt's inexplicable rant.

Yet the authorities have only themselves to blame for the ongoing shambles.

For once problems first surfaced during the Test series, anyone with an ounce of commonsense could have foreseen the danger of further allegations coming to light.

It is why the tour should have been scrapped immediately and why Pakistan should have been suspended from international cricket pending a full inquiry.

You will note the ECB statement made a point of saying the England team were behind the decision to play on, but does anyone really believe that?

Poor old Andrew Strauss, the England captain, can hardly say different if that is the line taken by his employers, and it is known there were serious misgivings among England's players about proceeding with today's game at the Rose Bowl and Monday's match at Lord's.

I do not for one moment accept the ECB and the England players are singing off the same hymn sheet, or that the latter wanted the series to continue.

Rather, it is the ECB who are hell-bent on finishing a series that most people no longer have the stomach to watch.

The ECB have also, along with the ICC, failed to act in the right and proper way.

By permitting the tour to continue, they have displayed a familiar lack of decisive leadership.

As former England captain Michael Vaughan put it, there are times when you have to look beyond money and do what is right.

Instead, the authorities appear to have shown more concern for keeping their sponsors and stakeholders happy than for cleaning up a sport they are supposed to be governing.

That is not to say one does not have sympathy for the ECB and ICC.

They have got one hell of a task on their hands to root out the spot-fixers/match-riggers.

But instead of trying to please everyone and cause minimum disruption, they should have taken instant action by stopping the tour.

Instead, proceedings have degenerated into pantomime farce.

Alas, cricket does not just need to get rid of the spot-fixers/match-riggers.

It also needs to get rid of many of those charged with running the game.

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