Pakistan players, coaches and officials have been summoned to appear before a parliamentary committee following the leaking of a video showing national team management raising suspicions of match fixing. The suspicions and the parliamentary probe arose from Pakistan's woeful tour of Australia early this year when they lost three Test matches, five one-day internationals (ODI) and a Twenty20 international.
A Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) committee of inquiry has already given heavy fines and suspensions to several players for ill discipline and poor performance. Six of them - Shahid Afridi, Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Younus Khan and Rana Naved - have filed appeals with a PCB-appointed arbitrator Irfan Qadir. Mohammad Yousuf, the former captain, announced his retirement from international cricket in protest against his indefinite suspension.
In the leaked video, coaches raised doubts about Kamran Akmal, the wicketkeeper, who dropped four catches and missed an easy run out during the second Test at Sydney. Intikhab Alam, the coach, said he was "flabbergasted" when Kamran missed the run out of Shane Watson and later he also heard stories of match fixing. Aaqib Javed, who was part of Pakistan's 1992 World Cup-winning squad, had strong reservations over the wicketkeeper's poor performance Down Under.
"When I saw it I couldn't believe it. How he could miss such a big run out?" he told the PCB's committee of inquiry. "I can't say 100 per cent that there is match fixing, but I have my strong suspicions. "I know all about it because I was a victim of it. In 1998, I presented evidence against players but the judge who was hearing the inquiry ended the matter." Pakistan cricket has been plagued by match fixing controversies since 1999 when an inquiry headed by Justice Mohammad Qayyum handed life bans to Salim Malik, the former Test captain, and Ataur Rehman, the fast bowler, and also fined several players.
Last year a parliamentarian accused Pakistan of match fixing during the Champions Trophy in South Africa, which resulted in Younus stepping down from the captaincy. "We will even propose a committee of retired judges to investigate how does the PCB work," Iqbal Mohammad Ali, chairman of the lower house standing committee on sports, told AP yesterday. The committee has summoned Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, Wasim Bari, the chief operating officer who is also head of the inquiry committee, Younus, Yawar Saeed, the manager, and Iqbal Qasim, the then chief selector, for a meeting on May 25.
Ali also had strong reservations on the inquiry committee which included all PCB officials. "It was not a neutral committee and that's the main reason that now we will propose a committee of retired judges," he said. "After the leakage of this video, I am very confident that the president will also take serious notice and streamline the affairs of the PCB." Ali wondered why Kamran was not sent home if coaches doubted his integrity.
"What were they [coaches] doing when they had doubts?" Ali questioned. "They should have then taken a strong action and sent him back home as there was one more Test after Sydney, five ODIs and a Twenty20." Meanwhile, Michael Clarke, the Australia Test vice-captain, said he had no suspicions about the Sydney Test. "Looking back it was a wonderful Test match and a huge win for us, but I certainly had no suspicions," he told the Australian Associated Press.
* AP
