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LAHORE: Former Test fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz has criticised the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for the fresh match-fixing scam involving Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif.
“Such kinds of incidents cannot be avoided in Pakistan cricket because the PCB loves to keep tainted players around,” Sarfraz told Dawn.
“Tainted persons like Wasim Akram, Dean Jones, Moin Khan, Shoaib Malik, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Basit Ali and many others are still working with the PCB in different capacities despite having tainted past and many of them had even been penalised by the judicial commission of Justice Malik Qayyum,” he said.
Even former Test captain Intikhab Alam had recorded a statement that Basit Ali had confessed before a judicial commission that he had been involved in match-fixing.
“In the first edition of PSL last year, Ravi Bopara criticised Karachi Kings’ skipper Shoaib Malik for not using appropriate bowlers at the right time. Bopara had even asked Malik to test his abilities as bowler but the latter continued using wrong bowlers,” he added.
Sarfraz alleged that not only the first match of this year’s PSL between Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi was fixed but also the second match between Lahore Qalandars and Quetta Gladiators.
“A timely action on Bopara’s statement by the PCB would have sent a strong message to all players,” the express bowler expressed his opinion.
He further alleged that players had full support of their coaches and other officials for getting involved in the dirty business of fixing.
Sarfraz went on to say that the PCB wanted to conceal this scandal too like many other scandals of the past but International Cricket Council (ICC) pressure played a vital role in bringing it into public.
He slammed PSL chairman Najam Sethi and said he had been involved in many corrupt practices.
The former bowler said cricket boards around the world were not serious about putting an end to this practice as two teams of the Indian Premier League (IPL) had been suspended by the Indian Supreme Court and not by IPL authorities.
He said it was the Supreme Court’s decision which indirectly advised Indian captain M.S. Dhoni to quit captaincy.
Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2017
