Not satisfied with being complicit in one of the most disgraceful episodes in Test cricket history, the Pakistan Cricket Board has again shown contempt for both the cricketing family and the wider sporting community. By overturning the ban on Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, they have extended the middle digit to the ICC, WADA and cricket lovers all over the planet (note how I separated the ICC and cricket lovers as they seem to be mutually exclusive groups).

The PCB’s review board has legitimised the defence of stupidity in doping cases and used the exceptional circumstances clause of the PCB’s doping regulations as the basis for the decision. Call me a cynic, but stupidity does not strike me as exceptional in the case of the PCB or the ICC, let alone with the players; there is ample evidence to suggest that it is the norm.

Even if we accept the somewhat implausible argument that the players had no knowledge of what they were taking, the system should be in place to prevent it from happening. It is difficult to believe that, as elite athletes, the players are not put through regular health and fitness screening.

As with the Darrell Hair issue, the PCB’s response is to blame someone else, in this case themselves and not the players. Using some rather dopey logic, the PCB argues that although the ICC’s anti-doping regulations lay the responsibility at the feet of the players for ensuring that any substances they used were safe, the PCB’s regulations “impose no such onerous burdens on the players” (from the PCB anti-doping appeals committee report). Since when has checking what goes into your mouth become an onerous burden?

Of course, we can expect the ICC to follow through with its tried and tested method of response – masterly inactivity. It is the ICC’s regulations that must be adhered to, not some watered-down version adopted internally by the PCB. The argument that the tests were done by the PCB does not excuse them from the obligations contained in regulations to which they are signatories.

The ICC’s authority has been seriously strained over the last few years, particularly with regard to matters emanating from south Asia. Malcolm Speed and Co cannot allow this travesty to pass unchallenged. If the PCB wants to blame themselves for the inadequate protection of the players, then ban them from international cricket until such time as they have got their act together.

The PCB have now lost all credibility. No-one, other than the ICC, believed their feigned indignation over the Hair issue. The squealing about damage to their national reputation seemed hollow at the time, but even more so now, with this manipulation of truth to clear two of their own.

They need to called to account and sanctioned in the strongest possible terms. To do any less would be an insult to the game.