Pak jurist slams board

Former Supreme Court Judge Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim Tuesday lashed out at the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for taking action against players on the basis of an inquiry report.

"The Judge made mere recommendations and all the allegations were not substantiated, and yet the PCB took action against players," Ebrahim told a seminar on match-fixing in cricket.

A Lahore High Court judge, Malik Mohammad Qayyum conducted investigations into match fixing allegations from September 1998 to October 1999.

Following the report life bans were imposed on former captain Salim Malik and Ataur Rehman while six others -- Wasim Akram, Mushtaq Ahmed, Saeed Anwar, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Waqar Younis and Akram Raza -- were fined in May this year.

Ebrahim questioned the release of the report.

"The findings should have been handed over to the authorities and should not have been made public," he said.

"We have condemned no less than eight or nine top level players besides tarnishing our image in international cricket on all personal suspicions," Ebrahim, a key Pakistani jurist said.

"There should be an inquiry on why these findings were made public," he said.

Ebrahim himself conducted a one-man inquiry against Malik in 1995 after Australian trio Shane Warne, Tim May and Mark Waugh alleged Malik offered them a bribe to under perform in matches played in Pakistan in 1994.

Ebrahim had absolved Malik on lack of evidence after Australians refused to turn up to testify.

"Shane Warne did not turn down Malik's offer and the next day Pakistan won the Test from a difficult position," he said, referring to the Karachi Test in the 1994 series in which Pakistan beat Australia by one wicket.

Warne and May had alleged Malik offered them 50,000 dollars each to bowl badly on the last day of the Test.

PCB Chairman General Tauqir Zia told the seminar no country was above suspicion in match fixing.

"I wonder if there is any country above suspicion in match fixing, it has tarnished cricket's image badly," he said.

Zia said PCB took action to clean the game.

"We took actions on Judge Qayyum's recommendations for the good of cricket and like to see a pure game for posterity," he said.

Former PCB chief Arif Abbasi blamed South African cricket boss Ali Bacher and International Cricket Council chief executive David Richards for spreading the menace.

"Bacher and Richards deviated the guilt towards us, corruption lay in India and corrupted are in Australia and South Africa," he remarked.

Abbasi observed match fixing was hard to eliminate.

"Match fixing is a strong force, it cannot be eliminated but it can be controlled," he said.

Mail Cricket Editor