No one should be surprised that players take dirty money from illegal bookmakers, given the game's administrators cuddle up to corruption.

Before any players are brought to account following the latest damning allegations against members of the Pakistan team, the representatives of the 10 Test-playing countries on the International Cricket Council should be investigated.

This incompetent and, in some cases, despicable rabble are destroying the game.

The ICC's anti-corruption unit, which costs millions of dollars a year, has been shown up by the News of the World newspaper.

Among the most significant problems cricket faces fighting corruption is the pittance most of the players from the dominant Afro-Asia bloc are paid.

Dean Jones believes Pakistani players are on about $35,000, making them obvious targets.

Any players found guilty of corruption must be dealt with severely, but what about the administrators who have created an atmosphere for it to flourish?

What do the players think when ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed is sacked for attempting to root out corruption?

What sort of an unambiguous signal is that?

Clearly, as far as the ICC is concerned, cronyism, nepotism and political favouritism is so important it is worth sacking a chief executive over.

And what of the audit that the Australian Speed instituted against Zimbabwe?

The ICC - which trumpets openness, honesty and integrity as its core values - still refuses to release it two years later.

Don't like an umpire? No problems.

Sack him, like Australian Darrell Hair when he awarded a Test against Pakistan for refusing to play after reporting the team for ball tampering.

Or West Indian Steve Bucknor, dumped mid-series when India spat the dummy after losing a tense Sydney Test three years ago.

Don't like a presidential candidate?

Trash the ICC's presidential electoral system with a clandestine meeting of the Afro-Asia bloc then refuse to say why John Howard was rejected or take a formal vote.

Let Zimbabwe destroy cricket at all levels just so its president, Peter Chingoka, can stay in power. Then let him keep his snout in the trough containing millions of ICC dollars by retaining Zimbabwe as a full Test nation, even though it hasn't played one for five years.

Chingoka is the most despicable man at the ICC board table. He is a "shocker", according to one former ICC official forced to deal with him.

The UN, Britain and Australia have imposed a travel ban on him for his close links to President Robert Mugabe's brutal Zanu-PF regime.

Yet he was central to the rejection of Howard.

With South Africa, Chingoka helped change the votes of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, which originally supported the electoral process.

Of the six countries that make up the Afro-Asia bloc, only India's cricket board is really independent of its country's government.

In a number of cases, governments directly appoint cricket chiefs.

Former Cricket South Africa and ICC president, the late Percy Sonn, was so close to the political process he was sent to Zimbabwe during 2002 as one of 60 observers to verify Mugabe's fraudulent elections.

Sonn's successor in South Africa and at the ICC, Ray Mali, instituted the sacking of Speed.

Cricket is widely regarded as a microcosm of the country where it is played, which offers an instant insight into why Pakistani cricket in particular and the ICC in general is such a basket case.

Transparency International ranks New Zealand the least corrupt country in the world while Australia is eighth and Britain is 17th.

The boards from these three countries supported the ICC's electoral process at the June annual meeting.

The Afro-Asia bloc, which brought down the process, has South Africa coming in at 55 on the corruption index while India is ranked 84, Sri Lanka 97, both Pakistan and Bangladesh on 139 and Zimbabwe 146.

To coin a phrase, show me the money. The players from most of these countries certainly do not see enough of it. Given the example their administrators set, no wonder they go looking for it elsewhere.

The Australian