David Leggat: What part of 'you're banned' is confusing?

Photo / Alan Gibson

You have to imagine the conversation last week.

"Hey Mohammad, fancy a game this weekend?"

"Love to, but I'm banned."

"Don't worry mate. It's just a friendly. No one will recognise you. Slip a few overs in and then we're off for a feed."

"You sure it's okay?"

"Yeah, good as gold."

And so it came to pass that Mohammad Aamer, banned from cricket in February for five years for spot fixing, turned out for the Addington club in the Surrey League Division One game against St Lukes this week.

The International Cricket Council are thumbing the rule book and Aamer could be in a bit of bother.

Last January, when provisionally suspended by the ICC, he played for a Rawalpindi club side in a friendly. He skated on that, as the club wasn't registered with the local association, but he's pushing his luck.

Aamer claims he was told it wouldn't compromise his ban as it was not a game which fell under the jurisdiction of the England and Wales Cricket Board.

It's not as if the floppy-haired 19-year-old wore a false beard and glasses, fielded as fine leg, didn't bowl or bat. He opened the batting, hit 60, then took four for nine in an 81-run win, so he can't be accused of taking a low-key role in the contest.

Is the guy thick, or simply the victim of a run of bad advice? What part of "do not put on whites, strap on pads or mark out your runup for the next five years" does he not get?

Contrast that with the other two Pakistani players banned in the scandal during the England test series of last year.

The then-captain Salman Butt is popping up as a TV pundit more often than might be thought right while seamer Mohammad Asif seems to have disappeared.

Unlike those two, Aamer enjoyed support to be given a more lenient sentence. That was based on his youth and the suspicion he'd been susceptible to heavying to play his part in deliberately bowling no balls to order at Lord's.

With that in mind, you'd have thought he might have made every effort to keep his nose clean.

"I was informed I was fine to play," Aamer said.

Whether the ban should relate only to international cricket, or, say, first-class cricket and up, is arguable. Anyway it's not and there it stands.

The ICC has its hands full in other ways too. It's emerged that at their recent governance meeting in Chennai, the presidential rotation policy came under scrutiny, and there are moves afoot to stop it.

Alan Isaac is due to become the first New Zealander to take on the role in the middle of next year. He is doing his two-year term as vice-president to India's Sharad Pawar.

The ICC split its major nations into pairs for the purposes of nominating men for the role by turn.

While Australia and New Zealand are a natural geographical pairing - even though the initial choice of former Australian Prime Minister John Howard proved a dud, hence Isaac's promotion - England and the West Indies, for example, are not.

The next choice falls to Pakistan and Bangladesh. Pakistan's relationship with the ICC is fraught with problems while Bangladesh are the nippers round the table compared with the fusty old guard.

The Pakistan board smell a rat and have indicated they'll try to block that change. Isaac should be safe to take the top chair next year.

Wheels move slowly at the ICC, but you would not bet on a Bangladeshi or a Pakistani following Isaac up the red carpet.