When the term 'gardening leave' crops up, the immediate impression is how it is used as an impolite euphemism for someone who is ill being employed to get rid of the weeds in an ugly plot of land.

In the case of the current International Cricket Council' executive board, Yahaluweni, getting rid of the weeds has not become so much a matter of gardening leave as undertaking seriously necessary function.

Unfortunately the boardroom weeds have now become so thick, ugly and offensive they represent unsightly undergrowth throttling the system and creating a credibility problem within its senior administrative ranks that is stifling transparency.

Not surprising there is further fallout in the wake of the shameful handling of Malcolm Speed's early departure as chief executive and the non-appointment of Imtiaz Patel as a replacement.

All this has left the in-house administration at low ebb in confidence as the dirty cronyism of Ray Mali and Zimbabwean Peter Chingoka has been exposed as a ploy to hide the truth of the infamous audit of Zimbabwe Cricket's finances and missing millions.

The hatched job on the up-front Speed's position seems to have been hatched and scripted by a bunch of ugly rogues out of the pages of Shakespeare's play Henry VI and his evil murderer Richard III.

The connivance of these so-called smirking politically garbed poltroons and their dirty deed has ended with not only blood on their hands. They also assume posture of that ugly hunchback (Richard III) and his coterie of petty brigands.

This has left the ICC with the growing problem of not only administrative respectability as an international body. There is as well a serious question mark of their credibility in terms of sound governance and as such marketability in a tough corporate world.

As former ICC president Eshan Mani warned in London, there is genuine concern over the council's financial credibility factor. This comes from the way the game's so-called senior administrators (board of directors) have handled the Speed issue.

The administrators are seen lacking the sort of transparency needed for a major international sports concern. This includes their capabilities to handle of vast sums of money in sponsorship and the endorsement deals that affects the career of professional players of both genders across the globe.

Despite official denials and media releases coming out of Dubai, the decision by ICC to rid themselves of Speed and Patel's decision not to take on the job, is the main reason behind in-house lawyer Urvasi Naidoo the ICC financial officer Faisal Hasnain quitting.

Ms Naidoo, South African-born but London educated after her parents fled the apartheid system, is known for her sharp-minded legal expertise. She and Hasnain had hoped Patel would fill Speed's post.

But the way certain ICC officials went about the announcement of Patel's appointment annoyed the chief executive of the corporate blue chip South African company SuperSport. It has been Patel's vision that has seen the company have direct involvement in the cricket franchise system with naming rights and ownership of the Test venue in Centurion.

Information leaked from close sources in Johannesburg, say how Patel planned to lay down tough and uncompromising guidelines to the administrative running of the ICC. He neither a person to tolerate fools nor is he a 'yes man'.

In this certain Asian and African administrators were checking their profiles as they were warned to work more professionally or leave it to those who know how to administer the game.

For one thing, Zimbabwe Cricket would have been held accountable for their administrative mess and South African politicians put in their place.

'As we are in the 21st century gentlemen, it is time to act responsibly and think as 21st century administrators should think and behave,' he told a gathering of franchise sports administrators and accountants at a promotional meeting in Centurion in 2003.

'We are not here to boost our egos and take out of it what we can. We are here to improve the sports we run and see that they are professionally organised. If you are not here to benefit sport it is time you left it to those who want to do so and give the youth of this world a chance to be better sportsmen.'

In other words, he would have reminded the ICC directors of their responsibility and pulled the game into the 21st century. His fear is that there are far too many like Chingoka and Mali in the game who are not prepared to move forward and have a problem with innovation.

This is how the cronyism of the old Marylebone Cricket Club/ICC cabal did so much for more than half a century to stunt the game's growth after their formation in 1909. This ironically had been at the urging of British-born Sir Abe Bailey, a South African mining magnet former medium-pace bowler.

Or, as the shrewd and street-wise Malcolm Gray, the ICC president when Speed was made the ICC's chief executive in 2001, those years of MCC domination did a lot of damage to the game in keeping it in a 'comfy club of old school ties.' zone away from the ordinary folk.

By pandering to the public school system, they allowed the game to drift out of the orbit of the less affluent and create the image it has long had.

It is the image that the ICC need to tackle with sound, solid logic, as it was when the laws of the game were written by the MCC founding fathers more than 200 years, whether they were boozy chums or not.

Yet reading recently somewhere about it being a century-old game makes you wonder how some writers manufacture such rubbish ideas. Perhaps by peering into a siri-siri bag on the garbage heaps infesting such areas you find as Moragasmulla and Obeyskearapura.

While T20 has its place, there is the other side of the ICC that needs to be commended.

For one thing has been the pitch report by Roshan Mahanama of the Kanpur Test debacle that involved India and South Africa. It was more than a slap on the knuckles.

Borrowing a quote from Charles Dickens in his Personal History of David Copperfield, the guilty party, the BCCI, have admitted fault with a "'Umble we are, 'umble we have been, 'umble we shall ever be" cynical style comment.

The problem here is that after a 1-1 series result against Australia in Oz, the Indians couldn't stand the thought of South Africa winning their recent series in India. There has also been criticism of pitches in some of the IPL games.

Not only the Indian players but their media curl up their noses at the thought of having to spend time in Kanpur. Sourav Ganguly, whose first innings did so much to win the game for India has described it as his least favourite Indian venue.

On one occasion during the Kanpur Test, South African coach Mickey Arthur, had to go to the lobby and rescue Hashim Amla and Ashwell Prince and Dale Steyn as paranoid security wouldn't allow them into the hotel after their visit to dine with a local relative of Amla's.

It is the coach Arthur, however, who in a recent conversation, strongly expressed himself about the future of the game and the need to revamp the outdated future tours programme and talked about a three-year Test cycle that will determine the best team.

This is one of the major recommendations from last week's ICC Cricket Committee meeting at which the ICC's chief executives will need to look when they meet.

Arthur said the proposed championship cycle, culminating in the top two ranked nations fighting it out for the top honours, would give Test cricket more relevance and immediacy.

The idea is to get rid of the perception that some series are meaningless' and that there

is never a conclusion' to the Test Championship, said Arthur.

Chief among the committee's concerns is the health and preservation of Test cricket given the challenges posed by T20 and its climate of instant gratification.

He said there was not a single dissenting voice among committee members. All agreed that Test cricket was the ultimate form of the game and needed to be looked after.

He praised the chairmanship of Sunil Gavaskar who headed the committee before quitting at the conclusion of the meeting, but strongly criticised the reluctance of England's players to embrace the experimental referral system during the forthcoming series against the Proteas.

'This system was to be pioneered by England and South Africa in our Test series in July and August, but the England players have expressed reluctance because it is such an important tour. I find that extremely hard to understand.'

'This system is designed to rid the game of the one or two genuinely bad decisions which occur in most Test matches. I cannot see what there is to be afraid of.

What this means is that India and Sri Lanka will use the referral system during their three Tests in July and August when India tour the island. The referral system allows both the teams to appeal against an umpire's decision (each team can use a maximum of three unsuccessful referrals an innings.

It would then be referred to the third umpire who would view the replay on TV and convey the evidence seen by him to the on-field official who will then take a final call