A dose of humility every now and then can be very helpful.

For those, like myself, preoccupied with almost everything associated with cricket, events of the last few days have been quite instructive.

Indeed, only those who choose to be blind to reality will refuse to accept that the inappropriately-termed gentleman’s game is nothing more than a parochial pastime that manages to survive on the international stage only because of the huge support it enjoys in one densely-populated part of the world.

All the pessimists have been silenced, at least for a while, by the overwhelming success of the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Given all the ominous warnings from so many different quarters over what could transpire during the fortnight-and-a-bit of competition in the Chinese capital, it was instructive to see veteran American sportscaster Jim Lampley conclude NBC’s coverage of the Games with a glowing tribute to the host country.

While his compatriots in the media fraternity have attempted to suggest that it was the United States who topped the medals table due to their marginally superior overall tally, Lampley acknowledged that, on the basis of gold medals won (which is the standard that everyone else uses), China were the champions.

He also pointed out that fears of disruptive protests and suffocating pollution never materialised, and that the efficiency of the organisation from the opening to the closing ceremony was the perfect complement to a succession of memorable world-class performances which ensures that these Games will be remembered as the best ever, setting a standard that London will be pushed hard to match come 2012.

More than that, though, the powerful appeal of the Olympics transcended the usual ethnic, idelogical and national divides, to the extent that even as hundreds of lives were being lost in an escalating conflict between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia, there was no suggestion of either side pulling out of the Games as a mark of protest and, on one very poignant occasion, competitors from the two countries made a point of embracing on the medal podium.

In that context, and given the Olympic tabanca that so many of us are suffering from right now, the postponement of cricket’s Champions Trophy tournament by at least a year due to security concerns in Pakistan is almost a non-event.

This was a decision that should have been made a long time ago, unless the International Cricket Council was prepared to endure a watered-down event with a number of weakened teams, or even worse, their second most lucrative product withered down to a tri-nation series involving Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka.

Arguing about the rights and wrongs of the situation now is a waste of time because, given the vacillation of the ICC and its attempts to pander to the whims and fancies of the opposing factions-the traditional white-dominated countries who have been pushing for a postponement for months versus the new powerbrokers of the Indian sub-continent who wanted to show their strength by forcing the staging of the event-everyone can claim to have been vindicated by the final decision.

Nevertheless, the sport’s governing body needs to come to terms with the very obvious schism that exists in which cricket’s landed gentry of England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa (black majority country but still white dominated in cricket) is so frequently at odds with the nouveau riche of India and its sub-continental affiliates Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

In keeping with the old-fashioned pretentious way of doing things, everyone goes around putting on airs as if the game is in the very best of health. Yet, even before the advent of Twenty20 and its disruptive influence on every other form of cricket, an undercurrent of discontent has defined this allegedly noble pastime.

Notice that the West Indies weren’t mentioned on either side of that schism. That’s because we are really of no consequence in these matters. Our representatives lean in whichever direction that the momentum is shifting and our pleas for support on matters relevant to our continued viability, like the Future Tours Programme and the financial arrangements associated with it, have usually fallen on deaf ears.

Now we are reduced to celebrating victories over Canada (not once, but twice) and Bermuda with banner headlines, while also hailing hundreds by Xavier Marshall-complete with a record tally of sixes-and Chris Gayle against some of the jokiest bowling in international cricket.

Of course, the Beijing Olympics were replete with mismatches and, in some cases, even right down to the gold medal match-ups. But these were the Olympics, a quadrennial prestige event in which it is an honour in itself just to be there.

In contrast, cricket is moving increasingly in the direction of these nonsensical fixtures together with spending huge sums of money propping up non-cricket-playing nations in dubious tournaments like the Inter-Continental Cup.

While the Olympics are jealously guarded to prevent it becoming diluted, cricket has gone in the other direction of encouraging copious quantities of rubbish decorated as ICC-sanctioned events.

Sometimes we need to step back and take stock. Plates overflowing with cricketing junk-food in recent years meant there was no real opportunity to assess the damaging effects of such an unhealthy diet.

That there is no great lament, other than in Pakistan, over the postponement of the Champions Trophy, should make us realise that a little fasting from cricket next month may yet redound to the benefit of the game.

-fazeer2001@hotmail.com