Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Najam Sethi on Friday had no qualms about blowing his own trumpet at a press conference in Lahore for having successfully clinched a glorious deal, both with the International Cricket Council and the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which he said would effectively thwart the ‘isolation’ threat looming large over Pakistan owing to his predecessor Zaka Ashraf’s injudicious move to oppose the ‘Big Three’ earlier this year.

Sethi, who appeared to be in his element at the presser, told the large media contingent that the PCB has only agreed to ‘conditionally support’ the Big Three and that his relentless diplomatic efforts at the ICC board’s meeting in Dubai have almost completely salvaged the situation for Pakistan and the significant achievements made by him will have tremendous financial and cricketing impact for the country.

If Sethi is to be believed, Pakistan cricket coffers will swell by a whopping 30 billion rupees over the next eight years through a number of bilateral series against leading cricketing nations, including India, which the PCB chief proudly stated as his most remarkable achievement during his sojourn in Dubai.

Besides, he said, the ICC has also agreed to nominate its next presidential candidate from Pakistan which is, indeed, astonishing given the country’s current situation in world cricket.

Even if one is inclined to give Sethi’s sagaciousness a better chance of success at international forums such as the ICC compared to the inarticulate approach of Ashraf, the fact remains that both these men, due to their inadequate knowledge of the game and its intricacies, are not ideally equipped to counter the designs the Big Three have on the game.

Sethi might well have presented his case strongly and successfully at the recent ICC moot and may eventually get a few substantial gains in the bargain, he will be ill advised to take Indian cricket board commitments at face value, especially keeping in view its breach of the ICC Future Tours Programme and the snubbing of Pakistan cricket team on numerous occasions in the past.

“It is true that currently we have no other option but to join the Big Three, but unless we have something concrete in writing from the ICC and the BCCI for Pakistan cricket, it will be unwise to blindly toe their line,” says renowned cricket analyst Sohaib Alvi.

While Sethi continues to blame Ashraf for the latter’s ‘wrong’ stance on Big Three proposals, which he says placed Pakistan in an awkward state of isolation, most former cricketers and experts including former captains like Asif Iqbal and Aamir Sohail agree that Ashraf did the right thing by not jumping the Big Three bandwagon during his tenure.

However, former pacer Sarfraz Nawaz, known for his acerbic views on most sensitive issues, endorses Sethi's modus operandi.

“Zaka erred badly by not accepting Big Three's offer to join them as the fourth nation," he says. "At least Zaka should have met them to discuss various options and something good might have come out of it then for Pakistan. Now Sethi is repairing the damage and is doing a good job which is to our advantage."

Most experts also believe that Pakistan has failed to drum up support against the Big Three because the PCB lacks able administrative or media people to vociferously lobby for it on key issues when it matters the most.

“Why doesn’t the PCB highlight the misdeeds of BCCI chief Srinivasan and how he has been removed from his post by the Indian Supreme Court over ‘conflict of interest’ charges and his son-in-law’s involvement with the bookies in the Indian Premier League?” questions former leg-spinning wizard Abdul Qadir.

“If they can isolate us despite our forthright stance, why can’t we put them on the back foot by making out a case against Srinivasan. How can a person of such dubious reputation be named ICC chairman? It is only the clout of money.”

It is worth remembering that the entire Big Three episode and the ICC’s endorsement of it has been unequivocally condemned in the latest edition of the Wisden Almanack, considered the bible of cricket.

Criticising the ICC’s plans for unfair distribution of power and wealth among the cricketing countries, Wisden wrote: “International cricket is set for a future of ‘colonial-style divide and rule’ and will be holding its breath over the extent of Indian influence.

Cricket is appallingly administered, and is vulnerable to economic exploitation by the country [India] powerful enough to exploit it and the two countries [Australia and England] prepared to lend their plans credibility.”

While one would like to believe that all of Sethi’s claims are true and the days of isolation are finally over for Pakistan’s cricket, the fast-changing face of the game and India’s burgeoning influence on world cricket through the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) make one feel that Pakistan will shortly be compelled to revisit its current stance of conditionally supporting the Big Three.