KARACHI, Feb 28: Former Pakistan pacer Sarfraz Nawaz feels the International Cricket Council (ICC) shouldn’t take lightly the matter of former Australian cricketer Shane Warne’s predicting a ‘tie’ for Sunday’s England-India match at Bangalore. “Something is definitely up when you start predicting a tie instead of talking about who you think is going to win or lose a match,” said Sarfraz while speaking to Dawn on Monday.

“After all, how common are ties in cricket? It is something that the ICC should definitely be investigating,” said the former fast bowler who captured 177 Test and 63 ODI wickets during his career.

“And especially when such a statement comes from someone as controversial as Shane Warne who, apart from his doping scandals and irresponsible statements in the media, has also been in trouble over being accused of taking money from an Indian bookmaker in return for pitch and weather information,” he added.

“Match-fixing and spot-fixing are a sad reality of our times. Pakistan is already suffering the loss of three fine players due to their involvement in such things. We shouldn’t let any other team get past this matter so easily. So I will advice the Pakistan Cricket Board [PCB] to take an active interest in the matter. The ICC, too, should form a committee to look into this with a PCB representative present in that committee so that the English aren’t allowed to quietly sweep the issue under the carpet,” Sarfraz stressed.

Meanwhile, former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif, who was the original whistleblower on the match-fixing menace way back in 1995, said that he wasn’t sure how the bookmakers or Shane Warne could benefit from the match having ended in a tie.

“Warne may have made his prediction one hour or four hours ahead of the result, but I fail to see who stands to gain from the teams drawing as per international betting rules a tie results in a ‘fog’ or ‘void’ where both betting parties have to be returned their money as a settlement by the bookmakers,” he explained.

“Then even if something fishy is going on and Shane Warne really is in contact with bookmakers, then why didn’t he say something when Australia only made 28 runs in their first batting power-play against Zimbabwe at Ahmedabad on Feb 21?” Rashid questioned. “I’m saying this because the market rate for Australia in 10 overs is over 50 runs and it was strange that even after taking the power-play they made just 28,” he pointed out.

Agencies add: Former Pakistan captain and commentator Aamir Sohail on Monday called on the ICC to investigate legendary Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne’s ‘uncanny’ predictions about the India-England World Cup match ending in a tie.

Giving his comments on a leading TV channel, Aamir said that Warne’s prediction about Sunday’s big match at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore a good eight hours before the actual result was too mind-boggling to be dismissed as a coincidence and the ICC should question the spinner on the matter.

“When our [Pakistan] players are implicated in match-fixing on the smallest of pretext by the authorities of the game, then why has Warne’s prediction about the ‘tie’ not raised any eyebrows in the ICC?” Asked an angry-looking Aamir. “To me, these are clear double standards from Lorgat and Co. Everyone knows that India is the hub of bookies and match-fixers, so we can’t just rule Warne’s comments out as ‘casual remarks’.”