Ehsan Mani, president of the ICC from 2003-06, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that the PCB had "lost the moral ground" after failing to take charge of a case which emerged last weekend when three Pakistan players — Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif — were implicated in betting-scam allegations.
"If the allegations are proven, the whole thing is totally unacceptable," said Mani, speaking from Islamabad.
"Everyone involved in cricket, especially the ICC and PCB, have always said they adopt a no-tolerance policy to this kind of thing.
"But what has been disappointing is that the PCB has not taken the lead in this case since the whole issue broke.
Since it happened, the players would not have been in a fit state of mind to play a cricket match." Butt, Amir and Asif were questioned by police on Friday after being charged and provisionally suspended by the ICC on Thursday.
By that time, the players, who have proclaimed their innocence, had said they would not be featuring in the remainder of Pakistan's tour of England because of the "mental torture" they had been through following allegations sparked by an undercover investigation by British newspaper the News of the World.
"The PCB has done nothing except talk about playing those players until proven guilty and the ICC was forced to act.
The PCB has lost the moral ground on this one," Mani said.
Mani was Pakistan's delegate when he served as a highly respected president of the ICC. He improved relations between the Asian bloc and the western nations, and was instrumental in brokering lucrative media rights sales for the PCB.
Mani said he opposes the involvement of the Pakistan High Commission in what he deems a cricket matter.
On Thursday, the players met with the PCB chairman Ijaz Butt and the Pakistan High Commissioner in London, Wajid Shamsul Hasan. Following that meeting in southwest London, Hasan suggested the players may have been set up by the newspaper and claimed video images may have been manipulated.
"It is not right that the government should be involved in this," Mani said. "We cannot talk about the players at this stage but the PCB have not come out very well in this.
They should have been taking a lead role.
"They have failed to educate the players and failed to monitor the movement of people following the players who they knew about and who they had warned the players not to have contact with. Only warning the players is not good enough. They (PCB) have lacked professionalism."
