Intikhab Alam appointed team manager of the ‘mentally retarded’
Intikhab Alam who was the coach of the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 Cricket team during the much famed 1992 world cup has been appointed by the PCB as the new national team manager. The fact that the PCB should technically appoint someone who is young enough to handle the team
certainly evades them. Intikhab Alam was the coach of the national team during the controversy ridden tour against Australia where Pakistan had to suffer heavy defeat.
Some four months back, Intikhab Alam in a leaked video described some of the players of the national side as “mentally retarded”. He also alleged that they did not even know how to use a bathroom. The same person is now reinstated as the team manager as
Pakistan cricket now finds itself in murky waters.
Alam has taken charge of the national team at a time when the side is suffering from a lot of controversy and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128 has completely discredited himself by making claims to contradict them at a later date. His hypocrisy during his tenure as the chairman
has been truly exemplary. He takes charge of the team when the tainted trio who have been accused of spot fixing have their appeals in the Middle East against their suspension by the ICC code of conduct commission.
Following the whitewash against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746, Intikhab was asked to explain the reasons for his teams failure to win even a single match on their tour to Australia.
"These players lack lot of things like education, background... and at times I felt they were mentally retarded people. They don't listen to what you tell them," Intikhab said disgruntled.
He also had issues with Kamran Akmal who was alleged of underperforming and expressed serious doubts over his approach in the matches. Kamran Akmal will now be missing the series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 due to appendicitis.
Intikhab had alleged several players of being involved in spot fixing during the tour to Australia was met with dismay by the chairman of the PCB, who was quick to dismiss any such claims.
"There's no such thing as match-fixing. Even if my subordinate says something like this, he's talking nonsense."
Of course Mr Butt suffers from short term memory loss and soon made a statement to an Indian television following the victory of the Pakistan side, claiming that the England players had taken ‘enormous’ amounts of bribes to throw away the match. The England
cricket board was furious over those claims and threatened to take legal action against Mr Butt if he did not issue an apology and retract his claims.
Ijaz then went to England and retracted his claims of match fixing by the England players which resulted in great embarrassment for the PCB since the chairman did not have any proof to back his claims. He now has become a discredited figure and the Pakistan
high commissioner to England in a letter written to the President of Pakistan has complained of Mr Butt and his two years of power.
"It seems everything was happening under the nose of PCB officials and they did not bother to take note of it," the ambassador wrote.
Alam was one of the very few Pakistan officials who had expressed their suspicions over match fixing when he appeared before the Qayyum inquiry committee back in 2000. He is also the supervisor of the anti – corruption education for the young players of
Pakistan as the head of the national cricket academy.
He had told the Qayyum inquiry that in a phone call made to him, some people had revealed that as many as eight players had been involved in match fixing and asked the players to swear upon the Quran to play on the best of their abilities.
It can only be hoped that the Pakistan team finds its rhythm against South Africa but it seems highly unlikely since the team finds itself short of quality players like Younis Khan and Salman Butt.
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