The last week has shown the best and worst of Pakistan cricket…and by “best,” I really mean “worst.”

By now, we’ve all seen the grainy videos in hotel rooms and vans that implicated Mohammed Asif, Mohammed Amir, Kamran Akmal and captain Salman Butt in spot-fixing. That was bad enough, and has prompted enough anguish and hand-wringing to last us a few years.

But what followed was, in many ways, more disheartening. Instead of dealing with the fallout like a mature, competent organization, the PCB has bumbled its way to embarrassing lengths. Truth be told, no one could have expected it to be any different. After all, this is the same organization which did not see a single resignation after the Sri Lanka terrorist attacks in the spring of 2009, nor any high level departures after our brilliant tour to Australia, where we managed to win a grand total of zero games. But to see our worst fears about the ineptness of the PCB confirmed in these last few days has been galling.

Here’s the basic story, for those disgusted enough to have buried their heads in the sand. Once the scandal broke out, the PCB faced a choice: The first option was that they could act swiftly; take the accused players out of the firing line and withdraw them from the touring party; cooperate fully with the ICC and Scotland Yard in their investigations; and understand the gravity of the problem.

The second option was to deny that any evidence of wrongdoing on the players’ part; insist that they would play the ODIs and T20s; push back against the ICC’s Chief Executive recommendations that the players be temporarily sidelined; and force the ICC’s hand in suspending the players .

Which do you think the geniuses at the PCB opted for?

It comes as no surprise that Haroon Lorgat announced the suspensions of Amir, Asif and Butt, pending the completion of the investigation. They cajoled and urged all they could, but the PCB was adamant: these were mere allegations, they said. And people are innocent until proven guilty.

Which is true, technically speaking. But when the charges are this serious, and the initial evidence is so compelling, it behoves responsible adults to comprehend the stakes involved. The removal of Amir, Asif and Butt from the touring party would not have been an admission of guilt; it would’ve been the simple and sensible thing to do under the circumstances. It would’ve served the purpose of sending a signal to the rest of the cricketing world than we mean business, and we’re going to handle things properly. And it’s not as if the three players would have been in tip-top mental, emotional and psychological shape to play cricket anyway. But as it is wont to do, the PCB shunned its responsibility, and made the ICC do its work for it.

And that’s not all. You could almost excuse – almost, I said – the PCB not suspending the players straight away. Perhaps they wanted to send a message of solidarity with the players. Perhaps they didn’t want to appear as if they were kowtowing before the big, bad ICC. Or perhaps they simply wanted to be stubborn. Whatever the rationale, you can at least understand it, if not agree with it.

But what’s decidedly worse is the denialism that seems to have engulfed the usual suspects. Not to step on Nadeem F. Paracha’s toes, but it is truly amazing how blind to reason and fact segments of our society – and government – can be. Saying the players are innocent until proven guilty is one thing. But it is most assuredly another thing to suggest that the players have been “set up” – as the High Commissioner to the UK Wajid Shamsul Hasan did – or that the players are the victims of a conspiracy hatched by Indian intelligence agencies.

People actually believe this. Evidently, the Indians were in cahoots with a man who was the agent for half our team for years, as well as British tabloids, all for the express purpose of derailing the careers of our young stars. (It should be said that the conspiracy theory does have one thing going for it: it accounts for how Kamran Akmal has somehow escaped punishment – only the darkest and most nefarious enemies of Pakistan and Pakistan cricket would spare him).

These are probably the same people who believe the floods were an Indian/American conspiracy. Over the years, I’ve learned the hard way to not bother to try and convince these paragons of intellectual rigor.

The bare facts of the case point almost incontrovertibly to the players’ guilt. And if that’s not enough, I challenge you to watch Salman Butt’s first interactions with the press after the story broke – watch this video from about 4:05 to 4:55 – and tell me with a straight face the guy’s not involved. He certainly couldn’t manage it.

Thankfully, the people who believe that this is a convoluted conspiracy are not the ones in charge of investigating the case, nor are they the ones handing out the punishments. From here on in, the ICC is in charge, for better or worse. One hopes that they do not brush things under the carpet, and take full toll of anyone found guilty.

I also hope – contradicting what I said in the immediate aftermath of the scandal – that Mohammad Amir be shown some leniency.  As many have argued, he is as more a symptom than a cause of the corruption in cricket. In a society such as ours, where devotion to ones elders is paramount, it is exceedingly difficult to imagine standing up to so-called “senior” players like Asif and Butt if they are encouraging you to partake in their shenanigans.

This is not to say that he should get off scot-free, or even anything close. But it is to say a full understanding of the circumstances here is in order. Amir is an 18-year-old kid. That he can bowl better than 99% of men ever born does not make him a man. He’s still a kid, who merely happens to do one particular thing as capably as a man: bowl a cricket ball. I can’t be the only one who wants to see him demonstrate that again.

Ahsan Butt is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of Chicago, and he blogs at Five Rupees.

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.