Former captain, Rashid Latif, feels that the verdict handed out to the Pakistani trio comprising of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Salman-Butt-c2418, will not make much difference as far as cricket in the country is concerned.
An excellent wicketkeeper batsman in his playing days, the 43-year-old has been amongst the few who constantly made the headlines when it came to cleaning up the game in Pakistan.
This invariably led him to a face-off with the national cricket board and a few senior members of the team. At one time, under the reigns of Tauqeer Zia, the then PCB chairman, the 'Qayyum report', instigated by the former judge of the Supreme Court, Malik Muhammad Qayyum in 1998, highlighted that many of the Pakistani players were involved in match-fixing.
In his report he named a total of 52 players and officials, who he thought were at some point in their tenure involved in wrongdoings, which led to players like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wasim-Akram-c96292 to face hefty fines.
However, nothing conclusive came out and the PCB was also somewhat reluctant to impliment Mr. Qayyum's report. More than a decade later, the now defunct News of World tabloid, in a sting operation, exposed Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir over their involvement in fixing facets of a match involving http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 last year.
The three were facing criminal charges, and now Butt and Asif have been found guilty and are expected to face jail terms – pending a final verdict by the judge. Amir had pleaded guilty two weeks earlier and the extent of his punishment will be known later.
Latif, who pro-actively wanted to clean up the mess, does not feel that the verdict will have any bearing on how cricket is run in this region, supporting his stance with the Qayyum report.
“A few years ago when the Justice Qayuum report announced its verdict, served us with a warning and cautioned the PCB, nothing was done about it. That's not the fault of the Justice Qayuum committee. I don't think this verdict will make a difference to Pakistan or international cricket. If some players are out of the Pakistan team, others will take their place,” said Latif
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