For any Pakistan cricket fan it was an embarrassing sight - David Warner grinning after Mohammad Amir floored a skied sitter with the Australian batsman at 130. By then, the outcome of the dead rubber in Adelaide was almost certain but the way Warner laughed must have added insult to injury. He probably wasn’t laughing just at his own good luck or that of the Aussies in general (many other of his team-mates were also handed generous reprieves by the Pakistanis during the ODI series). Warner might just have been laughing at the state of Pakistan cricket.

The team certainly is fast becoming a laughing stock at the international level especially in the 50-over format.

Toothless bowling, sloppy fielding and unreliable batting were the hallmarks of Pakistan’s performance during the ODI series against the Aussies which they lost 1-4. So miserably was their performance in the last three games of the series in Perth, Sydney and Adelaide that their lone win in Melbourne seemed little more than a fluke.

The more unfortunate part of the story is that nothing is expected to change. There is talk of a new ODI captain and maybe some changes in the coaching staff but all of that would be cosmetic and therefore, more or less, ineffective.

Just a day after Pakistan were thrashed in Adelaide where Warner and his partner Travis Head treated Pakistan’s bowlers like a bunch of schoolboys on their way to a record-breaking opening partnership, chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq washed his hands off the team, claiming that he was merely a rubber stamp. The former Pakistan skipper, who took the job of chief selector with a lot of fanfare, insisted that he just selects players that are chosen by the captain and coach. Perhaps one should ask the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) why it pays millions to Inzamam and the other selectors if their only job is to go with the flow. One should perhaps also ask the question whether the national selection committee has any kind of utility at all. I don’t think that other than selecting players who are chosen by the coach and captain, the selectors do anything else. I haven’t heard that they crisscross the country, sniffing for young blood.

Each time you question the selectors over fiascos like the one we recently witnessed in Australia and they will tell you to instead ask the captain and coaches. "We give them the team they asked for and that makes them responsible for the results," is their standard reply. It works sometimes and the selectors manage to keep their jobs. Sometimes they are sacked. Either way, nothing really changes.

That is because the selectors aren’t the chief villains of the piece. Neither are the captains or coaches. No matter how many selectors, captains or coaches are replaced, things won’t change much. Over the years, Pakistan have tried more captains and coaches than most international teams. Misbah-ul-Haq provided Pakistan with rare stability but it’s pretty clear that his time is up. A lot of upheaval might be in store for the national team once Misbah calls it quits.

We should blame our cricket culture for most of the problems facing Pakistan cricket. Players like Mohammad Amir will keep dropping catches, including sitters, because they lack the sort of fitness that is needed to excel at the international level. They will keep messing up because they know that they will get away with it. Players like Umar Akmal will keep on under-performing because they know that one way or the other they will be back in the team.

There is always a lot of hue and cry after every cricketing debacle but the thing is it doesn’t take really long for such disasters to fade from public memory. Last year our team flopped miserably in the ICC World Twenty20 championship in India. What happened?

Shahid Afridi’s critics will retort that Pakistan finally got rid of the former captain. While others will argue that the selectors were sacked and a new head coach was roped in. But did it really matter? The new chief selector has hardly made a difference while Mickey Arthur is still struggling in a bid to make his presence felt.

Pakistan cricket will have to come to terms with the fact that other teams like Australia, South Africa, England, India and New Zealand have climbed up to the next well. Theirs are fitter and more technically sound players. It didn’t happen overnight. Those countries have invested a lot on development programmes and are now reaping the rewards. In Pakistan, actions have seldom spoken louder than words. You will see out top cricket chiefs making all sorts of promises but you will seldom see them following through.

You will hear them talking about making Pakistan a part of the so-called Big-Four and securing a number bilateral series against India worth hundreds of millions of dollars. You will hear them talking about other mega projects but most of it unfortunately is a little more than lip service. The fact is that our cricket continues to sink even as we celebrate events like next month’s Pakistan Super League.