Is world cricket heading for an inevitable split?

World cricket is facing a crisis because of issues ranging from terror attacks in Pakistan to the rebel ICL tournament, causing major concern among top players of a split along racial lines __ though nobody's mentioning the R-word __ and the end of the game as we know it.
Voices in the West muttering darkly about BCCI's "muscle flexing" during the ugly row in the India-Australia series Down Under which saw umpires being changed and a ban on Harbhajan Singh being revoked had provided early signals of fault lines developing, but a split was something nobody was willing to speculate about in public.
That's now changed with Australia's vice-captain Michael Clarke and former skipper Steve Waugh publicly acknowledging that the possibility exists while hoping that matters wouldn't reach that pass. Two more or less simultaneous, though unrelated, developments have brought things to a head. The first of these is that BCCI, the richest and most powerful board, and the traditionalist England and Wales Cricket Board have declared a virtual war against each other.
Both are stubbornly going ahead with their own versions of the T20 Champions League after differing over issues like player participation in IPL and recognition of banned ICL players __ some of whom play county cricket in England __ and squabbling over revenuesharing patterns.
The other has a terror angle to it. Australia and New Zealand, along with England and South Africa, have voiced serious reservations about playing the Champions Trophy one-day tournament in Pakistan in September because of the threat of attack from Islamic fundamentalists and the perceived lack of foolproof security arrangements.
Their stance has antagonized the subcontinental countries, with the recent serial blasts in Ahmedabad and Bangalore only reinforcing the point that all of them are susceptible to such incidents of violence and hence cannot afford to isolate Pakistan on the issue.
BCCI reacted strongly to Clarke's comment that any split between Asian and Western countries would herald "the end of cricket," with secretary Niranjan Shah telling TOI: "Let Clarke say what he wants. Terror is a global phenomenon and it can strike anywhere, why only in Pakistan? Can anyone say with certainty that there will not be a terror attack in Australia? The cricket fraternity must get together on this. There are rules and regulations in cricket and everybody must follow those. As for our differences with ECB, if everyone has agreed not to support unauthorised activities (read ICL) and share revenue in a particular manner in the Champions League, why can't ECB? Why say only BCCI is rigid?"