Statistics, as connoisseurs often tell us, can be misleading notwithstanding claims to being an exact science. Zaka Ashraf and Najam Sethi have both been in and out of the musical chair twice each in eight months. Apparently, that’s an even score -- but we know it’s neither even nor musical.

What the pantomime surrounding the hot seat has achieved is to turn the politically correct theory ‘equal opportunity employer’ on its head!

The latest bolt from the blue, which has shaken and stirred the Pakistani cricket pot, has not come from a court but the patron of Pakistan Cricket Board, whose love of the game, we have long been given to believe, is legendary.

In his halcyon days as a wannabe cricketer, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif used to play at the famous Lahore Gymkhana, once turning out in a practice match against the formidable West Indies in the early 80s.

During last year’s poll campaign Sharif claimed to have a decent handle on the pull shot, motioning the swivel to square leg with his hand, but Imran Khan, who, one suspects also knows a little bit about the sport, denies that was ever the case.

While the jury is still out to settle -- some might suggest unsettle -- those claims, the naysayers suggest what is certain is that the prime minister’s decision to replace the Islamabad High Court-restored Zaka Ashraf as PCB chairman with Najam Sethi by amending the rules has sown deep uncertainty about the future of Pakistan cricket.

Apparently, that does seem to be the case, but is it really?

Notwithstanding Imran Khan’s claim about Sethi’s return being a reward for the infamous "35 punctures" -- the inference being the latter had helped fix last year’s polls in favour of Sharif’s party when he was the interim chief minister of Punjab, there is another dimension to it -- perhaps, the most logical one -- that most critics have used only as a propaganda tool: the Indian connection.

The PM’s aversion for Zaka Ashraf, who is a close aide of his erstwhile nemesis and former president Asif Zardari, was evident in how, first, the PML-N government filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against the reinstatement of Ashraf by the Islamabad High Court, and then, pointedly snubbed him when he sought Sharif’s counsel for policy direction before attending the crucial power-defining International Cricket Council meetings in Dubai and Singapore.

However, while these steps and Ashraf’s subsequent dismissal has a political ring to it, there may be a bigger objective tied to Sethi’s return, and that is to pursue resumption of cricketing ties with India. After Sethi was first appointed as interim PCB chief, his brief was indeed to prioritise that great missing link in the Pakistani cricket calendar.

Right after his party romped home -- punctures or no punctures -- last May and even before becoming prime minister, Sharif began to advocate a peace dialogue with India with particular emphasis on opening up trade. Even though the two neighbours were locked in tensions following unsavoury incidents along the Line of Control, Sharif exercised restraint as part of a strategy.

However, the recent surge at the ICC by power-hungry BCCI president N. Srinivasan has made the dream of resuming bilateral cricket as a great confidence booster for overall ties that much more difficult.

Still, Sharif wants his man to be at the helm when the time comes -- it is an election year in India and the push for a composite dialogue, inclusive of trade, and cricketing ties (as a CBM) will probably become more pronounced after a new government is formed in Delhi.

The fact is that Pakistan is completely isolated after the ICC’s ‘Big Three’ led by the BCCI forced all the other boards to fall in line. While the PCB took a principled position, and was indeed betrayed by CSA, we are pretty much in the ‘survival-of-the-fittest’ realm now, where merely "standing ground" will only lead us to the abyss.

So what should Pakistan do in an apparent do-or-die situation?

Sethi will have to multi-task his brief. He must first and foremost cleanse the Augean stables at the PCB -- easier said than done, as he himself admitted last week. A top PCB functionary told me recently about how deep the rot is: revealing, for instance, that the "parasites" at the top are so resistant to change that they don’t actually want international cricket to return -- because some of them make good money touring as officials with the Pakistani team forced to play on neutral venues!

The same disgruntled official also disclosed how he was hired from abroad for a specific project but the staff at the PCB was frustratingly non-cooperative, only making sure to provide him tea at all times instead of files to work on.

On the policy front, the prime minister will probably have to play the lead role at some stage, where the PCB falls short.

For starters, Pakistan must lean on Sri Lanka, whose board was the only one that showed unity of purpose with it at the ICC before its hand was forced, and Zimbabwe, if possible, to break the five-year-old drought at home.

Sharif may have to initiate a diplomatic push at the highest level to make this happen. Yes, Sri Lanka will be hesitant after the great escape in 2009, but with assurances of the highest level of security -- perhaps, with a head of state-level apparatus, if need be -- may turn the screw.

At the same time, the PCB must get into fifth gear to try to stitch up as many bilateral series as possible with the biggies. They must especially target England where the large Pakistan-origin fan base will find some appeal with the ECB as well. If such a drive entails signing on the dotted lines to accept the new ruling troika at the ICC, so be it.

But there is no doubt the sales pitch will come in considerable part from how Pakistan performs on the field. We will have to be very consistent, and particularly against the better sides.

All of this however, pales before the critical threshold we are reaching as a nation in the existential war that Pakistan is locked in. Without peace and stability, it’s a cinch we will be left at the mercy of a new world order at the ICC that only we continue to oppose -- to our detriment.