A very innocent argument by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128: Pakistan High Commissioner to UK
Pakistani High Commissioner to England, Wajid Shamsul Hasan believes that the growing quarrel over match-fixing allegations will not have any effect on the relationship between United Kingdom and Pakistan.
Hasan further added that Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) Chairman Ijaz Butt has deflected criticism on the recent allegations against the English cricket team and board should be considered as a very innocent argument. Hasan said, “Butt said it’s very strange
that, when Pakistan losses a match, people describe it as spot-fixing or fixing of the match. When Pakistan wins the match, the same allegations are levelled against it.”
On the contrary, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is looking forward to take legal action against Ijaz Butt. The ECB's management described his comments regarding English players accepting enormous bribes to lose the third One Day International
(ODI) at the Oval as “wholly irresponsible and completely without foundation”.
Meanwhile, David Collier, the Chief Executive of the ECB believed that the Pakistani team is unlikely to play any series outside the Future Tours Programme and the team is not welcome to play a neutral series in England in the days to come. Due to the security
concerns in Pakistan, the ECB has been helping the PCB to hold matches at neutral venues within their country. Earlier this summer, Pakistan played against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 in England, which included 2 Test's and 2 T20 matches. Collier admitted that plans were in
place to hold Pakistan's matches in the summer of 2011, but that option is now effectively off from the ECB’s agenda.
Collier said, “We have been through difficult times before with Pakistan, as we all remember," also adding, "They'll certainly be part of the Future Tours Programme in the future, [although] it's not for a few years that Pakistan are due to tour the UK.
We are working with them on a number of [neutral] games, but we have to give it time. Time is a great healer, but now and probably next year is not the right time to consider that.”
The Pakistani team will play the series decider on Wednesday, as the visitors will complete the ODI series. However, the growing concern is the physical confrontation of the players from both camps. As before the fourth ODI at Lord’s on Monday, Englishman
Jonathan Trott and Pakistani bowler Wahab Riaz engaged in a scuffle during the nets.
However, Hasan finds the entire clash as an escalating row, which will not have a wider political impact in relations between Pakistan and England. He believes, “Will this row sour our relationship? My answer is certainly no. This is a separate matter. Our
relationship with the UK was not made overnight. It has its roots in the past. It is on solid grounds.”
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hasan-c61990 also made his views regarding the young visiting side pretty clear. He believes that Pakistani cricketers are innocent, until proven guilty. On the other hand, UK’s sports minister Hugh Robertson stated that calls for Pakistan to been thrown out of
the world cricket fraternity would surely have negative political consequences.
Robertson said, “In terms of the wider British-http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 relationship, if we were seen playing a part in throwing them out of world cricket, that would have very severe impact across the piece.”
After the Pakistani walked out at the Oval in 2006 because of ball tempering allegations against the Pakistani team under http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Inzamam-ul-Haq-c64383, this is the second time these two cricketing nations have collided off the field within the last 10 years. England and
Pakistan share a long cricketing history littered with rivalries and off-field controversies, from the early court cases on Imran Khan till the recent match-fixing scandals. However, these match-fixing allegations are merely ruining the mere foundation of
international cricket. The ECB and PCB should both work together to safeguard the integrity and glory of this global sport of cricket.
Collier said, “The most important thing is that integrity is at the heart of the sport. If there is a cancer in the game, we have to get rid of it and it does not matter where in the world it is and which team is involved. At the chief executives meeting
last weekend, we made it very clear that there had to be zero tolerance, and we had to get it cut out of the game, if it is there.”
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