An unlikely combination of Nelson Mandela and two lesser-known cricket administrators emerged as the most influential figures behind Zimbabwe’s withdrawal from the ICC World Twenty20 tournament, which will go ahead as planned in England next June, to the relief and delight of an unwavering ECB delegation.

While Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, held firm in insisting that Zimbabwe would not participate in the event, his opponents came to accept that, with about 95 per cent of tickets sold and the British Government refusing to issue visas for the touring team, this was not a battle they could win.

Criticism that the ICC has again taken an expedient decision bereft of moral substance is valid and a familiar whiff of compromise hung over the Westin Hotel venue here about a decision allowing Zimbabwe to retain full-member status and funding, which will include a basic participation fee for the Twenty20 itself. But although the outcome fell short of the harsher sanctions that Clarke wished to have imposed, he will return to Britain today knowing that a crisis has been averted and that evidence is growing of a potentially significant split in the traditional Asian vote within the sport’s governing body.

It has emerged that Mandela’s criticism less than a fortnight ago of the “tragic failure of leadership” in Zimbabwe resonated around the full board meeting and was quoted by Norman Arendse, the president of Cricket South Africa, who led the case passionately and forensically against Zimbabwe Cricket over two days.

Arendse, a lawyer, sided resolutely with Clarke and it then took friendly but frank words from Sharad Pawar, the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, in the early hours of yesterday to persuade Zimbabwe to pull out to avoid embarrassment of defeat amid dwindling support. Pakistan and Sri Lanka were preparing to oppose Zimbabwe and Clarke believes that a seismic shift in the political landscape may have occurred. ECB relations with Pakistan are strong, while Arjuna Ranatunga, the chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket, is too independent-minded to be tied to India on all issues.

Clarke, who took personal abuse from opponents inside and outside the meeting, said: “We have reached a conclusion that is undoubtedly the right one for cricket. Norman was very strong and when Sharad determined what he thought was the right course of action, there was no doubt what would happen. He made a very, very significant decision.

“I am very pleased with the agreement. We made our position absolutely clear all along, that Zimbabwe would not be coming, and that was the right position. I was determined that it would be settled by us in the boardroom and that our players would never again be put in the situation where they had to make decisions.”

The ICC constitution meant that Zimbabwe’s full-member status could not be removed and that penalties could not be imposed on political grounds. Arendse, however, made detailed links between politics and cricket in Zimbabwe, while the case of Peter Chingoka, the chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket, was largely based on procedure and protocol.

Andy Burnham, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, said that the ECB had taken a “clear and strong lead” in negotiations. “I would have preferred the ICC to take a stronger stance, but this solution still allows individual cricket authorities to decide whether to play Zimbabwe,” Burnham said.

Ray Mali, the outgoing ICC president, who had put the topic on the agenda, described the outcome as “win-win for all of us”, while David Morgan, his successor, claimed that “talk of ICC being divided was a mistake” on the basis that Zimbabwe Cricket’s decision to stand down had been accepted unanimously when the meeting reconvened yesterday.

A sub-committee of Ranatunga, Julian Hunte, the president of the West Indies Cricket Board, and one other will be set up to advise the ICC on all cricket matters in Zimbabwe. Behind the smug politics of the ICC and the tyranny of Robert Mugabe’s regime lies belief that Zimbabwean cricket is battling for its future. Clarke said: “Cricket stands for something and there is a sense of what playing cricket means. We wanted to show the world we should not put up with what is happening in Zimbabwe, but the main desire is to make sure that something is there when the country comes out of its nightmare.”