The past 2 weeks have seen some shocking revelations about the Pakistan cricket team, The News of the World has been have been the main accusers. There evidence: damning to say the least. A video of Mazhar Majeed, a man pictured arm in arm with quite a few Pakistan cricketers, laid bare his history of spot fixing. He implicated Salman Butt, the Pakistani skipper, Kamran Akmal, the wicketkeeper, Mohammad Asif, a bowler and Mohammad Amer, the up and coming (well, before this) Pakistan left arm speedster, in his confession. He revealed to an undercover NOTW reporter that he had control of 3 other Pakistani cricketers and that together they had match and spot-fixed for the last 2 years,including the infamous Sydney Test, which saw Pakistan lose from possibly the strongest position ever witnessed in a test match for the past 10 or 20 years. In the current England/Pakistan test series he revealed that he and his clique had been deciding when no balls would be bowled in the match, ensuring a huge payout for the players involved and third party betters. He revealed that Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amer would bowl certain no balls to order, and they did. The PCBs response: "The evidence is fake". Go figure.
The problem with the PCB is that they don’t stick to their guns: A life ban, a new bunch of board members (or a few batting collapses) and hey presto, the life banned cricketer is back on the cricket field. Take a look at the BCCI: When Azharuddin was charged, he never made a comeback; the life ban was a life ban and nothing less. Even Ajay Jadeja, who wasn’t officially charged, never played again.
Luckily The ICC have suspended 3 of the 4 accused.
The fact is that the skipper Salman Butt, regardless of his own belief, comes out looking the worst. The fact that his name literally translates to “Fish Ass” is not what I mean. Mazhar Majeed clearly states in the News of the World video that “Asif will bowl the third over”, he’ll only know this if Butt is in on it as the skipper decides who bowls which over. Add that to the fact that money given by the NOTW reporter to Majeed was found in Butts hotel room (he claims it was for shopping for his sister) and that Butt is the captain and should be leading by example and your looking at a reasonable punishment that will effectively end his international career.
As for Mohammad Amer, the no-ball that has been that is under the scanner is huge. Cricket is played within fractions, there is no way that such a big no-ball would have been bowled by an international class bowler unless it had been pre-determined, at the very least a bowler would know if he was going to overstep with such a huge margin just a few paces before the delivery, thus aborting his run up. Amer is a talent, possibly the most exciting prospect to happen to cricket since Sachin Tendulkar, if he tells all then perhaps he may get off with a lighter sentence.
Mohammad Asif is finished, period. He should have learned the last time when he was caught in possession of drugs, he didn’t and should say goodbye to any form of international cricket through a non-Pakistani administered life ban (perhaps the ICC needs to intervene). What’s more is the way he delivered the no-ball to order: it seemed more controlled, as if he had experience of having done so before. Amers no-ball seemed more like that of a novice fixer, desperate to get the job done regardless of how suspicious it looked.
What of Kamran Akmal? The fourth cricketer who was also accused, why does he get away scot free? The ICC have not suspended him, surely he should be under the scanner as well, after all one does not drop Mike Hussey 4-5 times when the lead is only 50 and then remain in the side. Mazhar has already admitted to the fact that the Sydney test or 'that test' as it is currently known was a match fix, Pakistan engineered that loss given that the betting odds where stacked heavily in favour of Pakistan winning the match and Akmal was the main culprit. On what grounds was he made vice captain with such a poor showing in Australia where he was accused of match fixing? It is those sorts of decisions that make Pakistan the laughing stock of international cricket.
They need to sort it out for the good of cricket and Pakistan itself.
