The death of Percy Sonn, premature and painful as it was, allows the International Cricket Council (ICC) to rethink the direction and style of its leadership for the immediate future. These have been dark days for a body whose mission statement is to "Promote and protect the game and its unique spirit".

ICC can pursue China all it likes, can run tournaments in Timbuktu if it chooses but unless it goes to work on the balance between bat and ball, the game has a serious problem.

When Shane Warne hung up his high tech trainers after the most recent Christmas and New Year of his life, the art and colour of cricket was immediately threatened. It was Warne, you remember, who regenerated the thrill of spin bowling and, at the same time, brought a self-styled glamour to a sport that had been increasingly marginalized by the dullards. Fifteen years on and it is compromised by overkill and declining standards of bowling which, let's face it, are not unrelated.

Asad Rauf's crusade to redress this delicate balance by raising his finger in favour of the spinner may well be another stage in the natural evolution of the game but there is more to it than a few sustained appeals.

Admirable as it is that ICC have appointed a new and modern cricket committee that met for the first time late last week -- presumably on the back of last year's brilliant MCC initiative to do the same; imitation remains the greatest flattery -- it is not much good if that committee cannot immedi- ately identify the game's most urgent problem. The bowler needs help and the laws that pertain directly to the balance between bat and ball need review.

Since MCC are the custodians of the laws, there is an ideal opportunity here for the two bodies to start working with one another again. The new committee did examine the role of bowlers in the one-day game but, incredibly, made suggestions that were mainly for the benefit of batsmen.

Until late 1989, MCC's secretariat ran ICC and the MCC president doubled up as the chairman of ICC. The first chairman after independence, so to speak, was Colin Cowdrey, who was then followed by Clyde Walcott -- two forces for good if ever there were.

It was to the game's advantage that both were eminent, if dated, former players. Though ICC board meetings were fractious even back then, these two respected and deeply knowledgeable hands on the tiller worked to the common good of the eclectic, demanding membership and the game itself.

When Jagmohan Dalmiya took over from Walcott the role was re-titled president and all bets were off -- well, you know what I mean. The ensuing mayhem led to jealousy and mistrust the world over, and from this came the selfish attitudes within the game's governance that we see today.

Dalmiya played the political game with unnerving zeal and as television rights increased from relative fodder into figures of a frightening proportion, the players were treated with feudal contempt and the game they were playing was allowed to drift into unsatisfactory waters.

Sonn's replacement as president

until 2009 -- in theory, a period without any major television battles to fight -should be a former player, someone of such indisputable stature that its board members will listen and learn about the game they purport to value but are defacing. Top of the shopping list should be Richie Benaud but given that he is unlikely to want the hassle, there are crop of younger men worthy of global respect and edgy enough to give it a crack. Imran Khan is one; Michael Holding and Mark Taylor are others.

Rameez Raja had a brief and enlightening spell as CEO of the Pakistan Board of Control so has seen the other side. Rameez would be a terrific option if only he could be convinced ofit himself.

ICC's quoted vision for the game is to "Captivate and inspire people of all ages".

They will need more contributions from people closely in touch with it to do this. Though the players cannot literally run international cricket themselves, their input should plot the path forward.

It is they, along with a modernised ICC, who should be working out how best to fill the vacuum created by Warne's departure -- not to say another vacuum left by the excellent, disciplined Glenn McGrath -- and whether or not the next generation of spin bowlers should go down the same path as Muttiah Muralidaran.

Only those who have played the game at an elite level truly know.