ICC’s Circumstantial Marriage with the PCB: The Zulqarnain Haider Dilemma
It almost seems as if the International Cricket Council and the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 Cricket Board are in a forced marital relationship, where the one keeps getting in trouble and the other keeps bailing their partner out. The last few years
have been very busy for the International Cricket Council because first they were faced with the problem of teams refusing to play cricket in Pakistan after the terrorist attacks on the Sri Lankan team, and then this summer it was another match-fixing scandal
involving Pakistani players.
Currently, when the International Cricket Council was busy in arranging a formal tribunal to hear the spot-fixing cases against the three accused Pakistanis (Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif) the cricket world was yet
again struck by another predicament involving a Pakistan’s national side’s wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider. The skinny wicketkeeper had run away to England leaving his side in Dubai to face the South Africans in the last One-Day International of the five-match
series (Pakistan lost that match, and the series 2-3).
The main reason given by Haider for his actions is that he had been given death threats by someone if he didn’t lose the last match of the series. Haider didn’t inform any of his team members nor his team management about the threats
that he was getting and in a sudden decision decided to flee Dubai.
Later, Zulqarnain resurfaced in England; the player immediately announced his retirement from international cricket and requested the United Kingdom to give him asylum. The Pakistan Cricket Board and the team management were taken
aback by such hasty decisions of Haider and they suspended his central contract with immediate effect because he had clearly violated the new code of conduct by not informing the team management about the match-fixing threats.
The ICC at this juncture is caught in a difficult situation: it cannot help the player until he asks for their help and they are confused as to why the player didn’t contact the Anti-Corruption Unit of the ICC present in Dubai.
If Haider didn’t trust his management it would have been advisable for him to contact the ICC instead of going into hiding and then showing up in England. “We understand his plight if reports are indeed true, but we can only help
if he is willing to engage with us,” said ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat.
Just days ago the ICC had lauded the Pakistan Cricket Board’s efforts towards curbing corruption and enforcing the new code of conduct. These efforts seem like a waste now after Haider’s actions. Speaking on the matter, ICC’s Chief
Executive http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Haroon-Lorgat-c61719 said, “Clearly this is in the first instance a team matter for Pakistan cricket but the ICC is willing to provide assistance to the PCB and the player.”
The player has been criticized by the PCB, former players as well as by the Pakistan government. The ICC is also of the opinion that Zulqarnain Haider should have gone to the cricket authorities in Dubai instead of running away.
The role of Pakistan management and ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit has also come to question as to how a player was able to get his passport which is with the team manager during a tour and why wasn’t the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit
able to keep an eye on the player who managed to disappear without a trace.
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