Match plus Spot fixing allegations for 3rd Pak-Eng ODI:
PCB reacts - finally!
The Pakistan Cricket Board is currently being severely criticized inside Pakistan for playing the role of a somewhat passive recipient and a silent observer when faced with spot-fixing and other allegations during Greens’ on-going tour of England.
On 29th August 2010, as the last test match between Pakistan and England was in play at Lord’s, a British tabloid “News of The World” published a lead story alleging four of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 players to be involved in spot-fixing. These included Mohammad
Aamir, Mohammad Asif, Salman Butt and Kamran Akmal. Aamir and Asif were accused of deliberately delivering no-balls, hence under-performing.
The PCB, instead of reacting strongly to the allegations, rather adopted a defensive approach that made the ICC and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Scotland-c756 Yard– who both had started their full-fledged investigations into the matter- even more suspicious of the players’ involvement.
The comedy of errors started with the first press conference held by the defamed test Captain, Salman Butt, and also the team manager, Yawer Saeed. For more than half of the time, Yawer didn’t seem to hear or understand the questions put forth by the British
reporters, who then were repeatedly heard asking Butt, “What is he saying?” Well, on top of it, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Salman-c88163 would simply reiterate the entire question.
What made things worse at the press conference was that Yawer failed to clearly claim that the players were not involved in any spot-fixing and hence were innocent. Instead, all he said was that “they are innocent until proven guilty”. The British media
kept pressurizing the manager to say something substantial in defense of the players, but sadly, he mostly kept it to himself.
In the following weeks after the spot-fixing allegations, the PCB Chairman, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128, who was and still is supposed to play a dominant role in a crisis like this, seems to have made a tactful disappearing act, whereas he was found nowhere to be seen in
any form of the media. This further damaged Pakistan’s position.
The Board also made a premature decision of dropping the accused players while claiming that they were ‘mentally traumatized’. This decision later opened the door for the ICC to provisionally ban them. A few things don’t make sense at this point. First of
all, why would the players feel mentally traumatized if they are innocent? And if they really are innocent, then they should prove it by being at the offensive, that is to try to confront the allegations and clearly state that “We are not guilty”.
Secondly, they need to make sure that they remain in the team to affirm further that the allegations have no mental effect on them and they are totally baseless. It is for sure that the silent treatment given to the entire spot-fixing scam by the PCB has
certainly hurt Pakistan as a cricketing nation.
Meanwhile, amidst these spot-fixing allegations, a fresh scandal has emerged; this time reported by yet another British tabloid “The Sun”, which claims that the third one-day match between Pakistan and England– that ended in an exciting finish – was also
marred by spot-fixing and match-fixing. According to the tabloid, the scoring patterns of Pakistan side during certain stages of the match seem to be in congruence with what a bookie from Dubai (who is said to be an Indian) had told “The Sun”.
The ICC appears to be investigating these fresh allegations too. But, this time around, the PCB responded promptly and it seemed infuriated. What perturbed the board the most was that they found out about ICC’s decision to investigate the 3rd
ODI from media. PCB were appalled that, despite being a member of ICC, they were not taken into confidence beforehand. Pakistan’s ODI Captain, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482, also seemed annoyed when he commented by saying that the Pakistani cricketers including him were sick
and tired of these match-fixing allegations.
Finally, the Pakistan side made an effort to be vocal and assertive in their tone. Well done PCB, this is more like it!
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