November 16, 2006	Thursday	Shawwal 23, 1427

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LAHORE, Nov 15: Former Test fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz has urged Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to get rid of national coach Bob Woolmer before next year’s World Cup, alleging that the Englishman was a central figure in a match-fixing scandal during his tenure as South Africa coach.

Sarfraz, who has a habit of embroiling himself into controversies, wrote in his column ‘Big Saif’ on Wednesday for a local daily that Woolmer had been cited of wrongdoing by former South African opening batsman Gary Kirsten in his autobiography.

According to Sarfraz, Kirsten has reportedly mentioned in the book that Woolmer and Hansie Cronje, who died in a plane crash four years ago, repeatedly asked him to under-perform when they were at the helm of South Africa team as coach and captain respectively.

Cronje was banned for life in year 2000 after publicly admitting he had taken money to fix a couple of One-day Internationals while Woolmer served as South Africa’s coach during the same period (1994 to 1999).

“My advice to the PCB is to sack Woolmer first thing before they start planning for 2007 World Cup because the man had been involved in match-fixing as Kirsten has pointed out in his book,” the outspoken ex-Test cricketer wrote in his column.

In the light of Kirsten’s disclosures, Sarfraz has alleged that Woolmer had sold two matches played by Pakistan against India at Rawalpindi.

“My pleadings fell on deaf ears when I raised hue and cry and asked the authorities to initiate an inquiry into the results of those matches,” Sarfraz wrote. “Dr Nasim Ashraf promised to hold an inquiry only after (Senator) Enver Baig demanded so in the Senate’s Standing Committee on Sports.”

Sarfraz also claimed that the reason behind his omission from the National Cricket Workshop, to be held on Friday at the NCA in Lahore, was that he had sent a copy of Kirsten’s autobiography as a ‘gift’ to Dr Nasim Ashraf.