ZULQURNAIN HAIDER MAKE MISTAKE?

Perhaps Zulqarnain Haider should've gone about his self-preservation differently, but amid the peril of Pakistan cricket, Tim Ellis can hardly blame the man for acting in such a manner.

If only Pakistan could concentrate all their energies on cricket matches. Zulqarnain Haider's escapades are just the latest extraordinary goings-on for a country that appears to be defined by the most dubious of characters and controversies. Is there any end or beginning to these stories? One just couldn't make them up. But one doesn't need to. They just keep coming.

The Pakistan Cricket Board needed this latest episode like a hole in the head. Just days before, the ICC had welcomed the steps that the PCB are now taking in a bid to work on an anti-corruption code, regulating the contact between agents and players and improving the education of those coming through the system.

A suitably chastened and newly amenable chairman Ijaz Butt had said: "The PCB is determined to implement the recommendations provided by the ICC. We at the PCB, like the ICC, are committed to a zero tolerance approach to any form of corruption." Everybody from ICC chief Haroon Lorgat to the ECB's Giles Clarke had been praising Butt for his actions.

One only has to look at the ODI series against South Africa to see what impact Pakistan cricket can make when it is firing on the right cylinders. It is a country that can produce cricketers of extraordinary raw talent, but then lose them in the most risible ways. One has to hand it to them - this is a whole new way of waving goodbye to international cricket.

When players first come into the international game, they are given a one-to-one induction by the ICC on how they might be compromised. Waqar Younis, current coach of the Pakistan team had stressed that education at a very early age is necessary as it would keep the players away from allegations and dark forces.

"Players should be trained and given proper education from the age of 16," said Younis on his arrival back home following the completion of the England tour. "It's very difficult to coach them at the international level if they are not trained. But if they are brought up with a proper education, it will definitely help them to stay away from controversies."

With the Haider case, there appears to be a more sinister force coming into view, which goes beyond the notion that the Pakistan board is not doing enough to get the message across to its players.

This comes just a few weeks after the ICC was mulling over the use of undercover agents to see how players respond to being approached by persons who could be illegal bookmakers. The plans have generally being dismissed by South Africa and Australia and on the face of it would be deemed illegal in a court of law.

Former Pakistan captain Asif Iqbal felt that Haider had made a big mistake in fleeing to the United Kingdom: "Just before the start of the series, the ICC anti-corruption unit had told them 'if you are approached by anyone or if you have anything to say, go to the team management. If not, then come to us'. He has not done either."

All things being equal, Haider may have just done just that. But in Pakistan's annus horribilis, nobody can really blame him for self-preservation.