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Pakistan's former Test stalwarts refused to digest International Cricket Council's explanation that it was not its responsibility to reschedule New Zealand's tour to Pakistan which is all but cancelled due to security reasons.

Legendary Hanif Mohammad blamed the ICC for not showing professionalism while chalking out the 10-year programme, a vocal former chairman of selectors Hasib Ahsan accused the game's governing body of bias.

"I think the ICC should accept the blame of not keeping provision of unexpected happenings at the time of finalizing its 10-year calendar. Loopholes have been exposed in its planning," the Little Master said.

"The ICC should take this incident as an eye-opener and revise its 10- year plan. There needs to be provision to reschedule tours if affected by events beyond their control," Hanif said. But Hasib took a shot at the ICC when he said: "The ICC is like United Nations. It appears to be non-existent when there are issues involving countries like Pakistan but suddenly surfaces when influential countries face some crisis. "If the ICC claims itself to be the game's controlling authority, then its responsibility doesn't end at all. It needs to reschedule New Zealand's tour so that Pakistan doesn't suffer any financial setback and receives equal treatment."

The ICC, however, received an unexpected support from Zaheer Abbas when the former captain said: "It don't think the ICC can do anything. The present situation is beyond its control. "However, the ICC should press New Zealand Cricket (NZC) to honour the commitment at an appropriate time." Another former chief selector Salahuddin Ahmad opined that the ICC now needed to give assurances to the host board that the series would be rescheduled.

"Pakistan is honouring its commitments but is getting a raw deal from others. The ICC needs to show some teeth and spine. If the ICC says its responsibility has ended, then it is conveying signals that it has limited powers."

Arif Abbasi, the longest serving Pakistan cricket administrator, argued that if the ICC had taken the responsibility of arranging tours, it was its duty to monitor if the schedule was being followed.

"If the ICC claims that it is all in all, then it has to act accordingly. The ICC is not United Nations but a company which is registered in Monaco. If the ICC cannot ensure the implementation of the 10-year programme, then its better that the respective boards go back to the old format where tours were bilaterally decided."

Abbasi, however, felt that Pakistan should have demanded the ICC to spell out its policy after India had refused to honour its commitment. "Pakistan should have asked for penalties then and there. Unfortunately, Pakistan lost out that opportunity." Pakistan stands to lose at least $5million which will be a terrible setback after it suffered a $15million and Rs 2million losses earlier this year - courtesy India.

Ironically, both the countries generated revenues at least three times more than what Pakistan would have earned when the green-shirted cricketers toured India in 1999 and New Zealand earlier this year. Hanif, Zaheer and Arif Abbasi were unanimous in saying that there should be compensation and sanctions if a country doesn't fulfil its obligations even under friendly conditions.

"There should be fines. The defaulting board should be penalized at least 50 per cent of what the host board would have earned," Hanif observed. Zaheer said: "If the ICC can't enforce itself, what's the point of having it. The least they can do is to impose fines or sanctions on team's not binding the agreement. "Why the host board should suffer because of atrocious policies of some government or its cricket establishment and ICC's ineffectiveness."

© Dawn