Jonathan Agnew column

By Jonathan Agnew BBC cricket correspondent

Inzamam faces an ICC hearing on Friday

The news that Inzamam-ul-Haq has been charged with ball tampering and bringing the game into disrepute is the most serious development in this saga.

It is one that could still threaten the future of the tour and Shaharyar Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board and a senior diplomat, will need to use all his experience.

Pakistan are due to play five one-day internationals against England over the next three weeks.

But if the captain is found guilty by the International Cricket Council's most senior referee, the Sri Lankan Ranjan Madugulle, his punishment could be to miss the whole series.

Given Inzamam's revered status within the team, there is a real danger that his players show solidarity.

Pakistan's announcement that they will not play a match officiated by umpire Darrell Hair will not wash with the ICC

Thus far, the ICC has backed its umpires to the hilt - it really has little alternative without undermining the credibility of the sport.

But the fact that Inzamam has been charged with ball tampering suggests that the umpires did not see an individual break the law, but are holding the captain responsible.

That makes this charge, of the two, the more difficult charge to prove.

Pakistan's announcement that they will not play a match officiated by umpire Darrell Hair will not wash with the ICC.

The world governing body deals with the allocation of its elite panel of umpires.

And the chief executive, Malcolm Speed, has made it absolutely clear that they will not be pressurised into making special cases to suit individual countries.

While I do have some sympathy for Pakistan, staging a sit-in on Sunday evening was not the right way to register their protest.

They clearly feel most aggrieved at having been found guilty of ball-tampering without being able to defend themselves.

But a better, more sensible approach would surely have been to issue a strong denial at tea time, in which they also promised to appeal, and get on with the game.

Instead, what they tried to do was effectively blackmail the officials into overturning the umpires' decision.

This could have set a very dangerous precedent.