LAHORE: Former Pakistan fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz, known for his hard-hitting statements and outspokenness, has urged PCB Chairman Shaharyar M. Khan as well as leading cricketing nations like Australia and England to put pressure on N. Srinivasan to step down as ICC chairman on moral grounds following the Indian Supreme Court’s verdict on Thursday.

Talking to Dawn on Thursday, Sarfraz said though Srinivasan was now duty-bound to step down as ICC chairman after the SC verdict, the PCB along with Australia and England as main members of ‘Big Three’ countries in world cricket should forge a united stand to pressurise the top Indian cricket official to step down for the sake of smooth and controversy free staging of the forthcoming Cricket World Cup.

“There are too many double standards in world cricket today which continue to irk honest, fair-minded critics,” said Sarfraz in another candid interview on Thursday. “For example, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) banned Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria for life but Indian captain Mahendra Dhoni, facing similar charges, is still playing on which is clearly a case of double standards. I insist that the ICC must not adopt such double standards for Srinivasan if the world body wants to keep the 2015 World Cup free of ‘fixing’ and other controversies.”

Read: SC asks Srinivasan to choose between BCCI and CSK

It may be mentioned that in a recent statement, the ICC chief executive Dave Richardson expressed resolve that strict arrangements have been made to prevent any kind of corruption in the Cricket World Cup, being held in Australia and New Zealand from Feb 14 to March 29.

Sarfraz, who is currently in Lahore supervising a PCB training camp for U-19 cricketers at the NCA, said for the last many years he has been speaking against betting and match-fixing but nothing substantial have been done yet by the ICC to rid the game of the menace.

Sarfraz recalled that about a month ago, he had also written a letter to Shaharyar in which he advised the PCB chief to keep the reports of retired Justice Ejaz Yousuf and retired Justice Malik Qayyum in view before appointing any former cricketers or officials in the Board.

“With grave concern I want to mention here that the entire Pakistan team management including Moin Khan, Waqar Younis and Mushtaq Ahmed have a dubious history and background. All these players were named in the Justice Ejaz report [dated Aug 16, 1998] as having links with match-fixing and betting mafia,” said Sarfraz while referring to the strong-worded letter, a copy of which has been obtained by Dawn.

“Furthermore, the same Justic Ejaz report has quoted the respected figure of Intikhab Alam as saying that now the junior selection committee headed by Basit Ali had confessed before him that he had been involved in betting and match-fixing,” he disclosed. “Chief selector Moin Khan, who also has acted as manager of the team, is the same official who was appointed coach and manager of the notorious Lahore Badshahs in the Indian Cricket League [later banned by the ICC].

Sarfraz in the letter further disclosed that Javed Miandad’s tussle with Moin Khan in 1999 in Sharjah on his (Moin’s) alleged involvement with bookies led to Miandad’s removal as coach ahead of the 1999 World Cup which should have been an eye opener for the PCB bigwigs then.

In the same letter, Sarfraz also suggested Shaharyar to remove Moin as team manager, and the former wicket-keeper should not be involved in any way with the national team during the World Cup. Interestingly, Moin, in a recent move by the PCB, was replaced with Naveed Akram Cheema as team manager. The chairman, however, kept faith with Moin as chief selector and the former skipper has accompanied the national squad to New Zealand.

It may also be mentioned here that a press release issued on Dec 27, 2014 by the PCB had clearly stated that Moin would only be part of the World Cup 2015 squad and not for the current tour of New Zealand. When contacted, a PCB official confirmed that Moin had left with the Pakistan team on Tuesday as the PCB chairman changed his earlier decision.

Meanwhile, commenting on Pakistan’s chances in the World Cup, Sarfraz reckoned that without the services of off-spin duo of Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez, 70 per cent strength of Pakistan bowling has been lost. “Any team can plunder 300-plus total against this mediocre bowling and then we will find it hard to chase,” Sarfraz pointed out.

He said five bowlers Junaid Khan, Umar Gul, Anwar Ali, along with Ajmal and Hafeez had been part of the bowling attack for the last one year or so, but now all of them were out of action due to different reasons and a completely new-look bowling attack is in the picture. “Our mediocre bowling line-up will also put some extra pressure on our fielding which can be crucial in close matches,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2015

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