KARACHI, Dec 1: New Zealand’s cricket umpire Doug Cowie in a letter written to Pakistan’s judicial commission probing match-fixing allegations has supported that Pakistan tasted defeat in two World Cup matches due to lax attitude.

“Pakistan were complacent and careless,” Cowie wrote in his letter which was read by Justice Bhandari.

The government in May this year constituted a commission under a high court judge Justice Nazir Ahmed Bhandari to probe allegations whether Pakistan’s team two defeats against a frail Bangladesh side and not very impressive Indians had anything to do with the match-fixing.

“Pakistan team seemed going through its motion while Bangladesh players, fielded, bowled and batted well,” Cowie wrote.

“It’s just that we took them easy,” the then Pakistan captain Wasim said while deposing before the commission earlier.

South African cricket official Dr Ali Bacher failed to produce any material substantiating his claims that the Pakistani players threw matches in the 1999 World Cup when he deposed before a commission last year.

The Bhandari Commission is yet to receive any reply from Bacher and would write to him again.

Pakistan’s first match-fixing inquiry conducted by Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum banned former captain Salim Malik and pacer Ata-ur-Rehman while it fined six others, including Wasim Akram and current cap-tain Waqar Younis.—SADA