Sometimes in friendship, and sometimes grudgingly, we play cricket with each other and other games off the field against each other. And so it is at the moment. It is not the game that separates us but the politics of the world. Within a group of eight, we have two factions digging in their heels and not yielding an inch. Sadly, in this war of perception, of intent and ultimately, of words, no one can win. And we, travellers on this journey, look at our watch as the minutes tick away wondering if the train will ever leave the station; whether we will ever move.

From here on the ICC, like with a lot of well intentioned mediators, can only lose. Pakistan are right to say that they have done all they could have done to guarantee security. Certainly they have not been short on effort and almost everyone who has been to Pakistan, and who has been willing to embrace a different culture, has come away with stories of warmth and hospitality.

Maybe we in India understand it more easily for like Pakistan, we are accustomed to finding a path in what seems a maze, we are familiar with chaos. When we begin a journey we do not always know how it will end but we know that it will. And we are conditioned to live with such uncertainty. The toilets might overflow occasionally on the train but the samosas might be much better than we anticipated.

But just as we expect people to understand us, so must we understand them. It is true that there is a war being fought not too far from Pakistan. It is true that some of the countries that we hope will play the Champions Trophy have troops fighting there; needlessly we might think, but that is the truth too. If I was an Australian cricketer and I read that my country had just shut down its consulates in Lahore and Karachi, I would be uneasy. You could tell me all you want but if I turned to my wife, or to my mother, or to my son, and they implored me not to go, if they said “must you?” I would be torn. I would ask myself if cricket was that important. And I know what I would do.

And so this is a time for understanding, not to enact another episode of us and them. Actually, correction. It was a time for understanding. That moment has long gone. Any longer, and the ICC will need magicians, not statesmen. Unless, of course, the idea has been to stretch it out so long that no alternative is feasible. This is now like a limited-overs game where the batting side, having lost early wickets, tries to bat out the overs and a time comes when the required run-rate becomes impossible to achieve. Sadly, it now looks like there is only one solution, er, possibility; play the tournament in Pakistan and play it with the teams that turn up.

It would mean that the rights holders do not get what was promised to them and clearly there must be a cost attached to that (as a disclaimer I must add that while I am on contract with ESPN Star Sports as a commentator I have no role to play in their business dealings with the ICC). If someone has to bear the loss, it can only be the ICC. It happens with all businesses. The price of oil goes up, the dollar fluctuates dramatically, somebody launches a new product!

But we cannot just talk any more, we cannot just jog to the finish line. When the asking rate gets to 20 an over, you know you are in a boring match. The ICC now needs to say “right, these are the cards we have been dealt with. Now, let’s make the best of it.” But they need to act now. And they cannot force cricket players, human beings, to do something they do not want to. We pay the price for the world we live in.