23 March 2004	Tuesday	01 Safar 1425

KARACHI, March 22: Pakistan discarded captain and wicket-keeper Rashid Latif said on Monday that the fourth One-day International between India and Pakistan was fixed.

Pakistan lost the fourth ODI against India by five wickets on Sunday at Qadhafi Stadium as India levelled series 2-2.

In an interview to a local television channel, the disgruntled Rashid said that the match was in Pakistan's hands and they deliberately lost it. He said that the match was pre-planned and it seemed that India would win the final.

He said, "even a common man could observe that the players were acting on a script because the body language of our players was not as it should have been." The former captain said that he knew the tactics the players adopt, when the match is fixed. He said losing the match after getting four wickets so early was beyond comprehension.

He said that first three ODIs were played so well and every one enjoyed that matches but the last one had some bad taste in it. "Pakistan made 293 runs and that was not an easy target on such a wicket where runs were not coming easily," he observed.

Answering to a query, he said, "I have raised my voice several times and also wrote a letter to International Cricket Council (ICC) about fixed matches." He said that every person related to the sport and concerned authorities know all about match fixing and no one could deny the fact.

Rashid said bluntly that he could not keep himself quite on such issues, which is the main reason he is kept out of the team. Elaborating on different ways of match-fixing, he said that fancy-fixing is also part of the match-fixing.

Talking on fancy-fixing he said that the match-fixers decide before the start of the match which player is going to make how many runs and which team will score more runs in first 15 overs. -PPI