Cricket News: ICC Pleased With Recent Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Decisions
Pakistan Cricket, which has been hit by bad news ever since the Lahore terrorist attacks on the Sri Lankan team (2009),
finally has something to cheer about, after the ICC gave a nod of approval to the Pakistan Cricket Board’s efforts towards curbing corruption in the country’s cricket.
Recently, the Pakistan Cricket Board has taken drastic steps towards improving its anticorruption practices, after facing tough criticism from the International Cricket Council.
This month, the ICC warned the Pakistan Cricket Board over its lack of control over corruption in the country’s cricket infrastructure. The message from the ICC was loud and clear: either get your act together or face a ban from
international cricket.
The Pakistan Cricket Board was given a 30-day ultimatum to sort things out and report back to the International Cricket Council’s task force. This task force is basically assigned the job of bringing cricket back to Pakistan.
ICC CEO http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Haroon-Lorgat-c61719 said: “We are encouraged by the excellent progress reported and also the willingness of the Pakistan Cricket Board to embrace the ICC recommendations, however we can never be complacent nor distracted in our
determination to tackle corruption.”
As advised by the International Cricket Council, the Pakistan Cricket Board has introduced a revised code of conduct with strong emphasis on anticorruption which has been signed by all the Pakistani players before leaving for the
series in the UAE against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 (starting from the 26th of October).
Pakistan Cricket Board has also set up an Integrity Committee, aiming to find ways to move forward after the spot-fixing fiasco, deal with the ICC’s recommendations and address issues of corruption and doping, which have disgraced
Pakistan cricket in the past. This committee comprises of several senior officials of the cricket board including the flamboyant chairman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128, Chief Operating officer Wasim Bari, team manager Intikhab Alam and director of international cricket Zakir
Khan.
The PCB (http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 Cricket Board) has also been told to implement education programs for the players, and a process to deter and detect corrupt elements within the game, whether they are players, officials, agents or any other individual.
Haroon Lorgat reiterated the ICC’s recommendations to other cricket boards for eliminating corruption in cricket. He urged the member boards to review player contracts and introduce appropriate clauses to ensure that players comply
with anticorruption rules and regulations.
Earlier this summer in England, three major Pakistani players (captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif) were accused of match-fixing, after which the PCB had to face the firing guns of the ICC.
Pakistan Cricket Board immediately barred the trio from taking part in the remaining games of the series, but no official investigation was launched. The http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Scotland-c756 Yard, investigating the case, was given full access to the players,
and the players were clearly instructed to cooperate with the Yard.
The board was severely criticized for their handling (or lack thereof) of the spot-fixing debacle, as initially the board took a backseat and let the Pakistan High Commission do all the talking, which backfired both at home and
in England. Further investigations revealed that the Pakistani players were totally unaware of the anticorruption protocol laid out by the ICC. It’s the job of the country’s cricket board to educate its players about the anticorruption rules chalked out by
the Cricket’s governing body.
Consequently, the Pakistan Cricket Board was not up to speed in educating the players, which can be assumed as one of the reasons for the players being oblivious towards anticorruption practices.
One can hope that with the recent changes by the PCB in its approach towards corruption, the country’s cricket is finally heading in the right direction.
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