Pakistan Cricket: Suspended Trio’s prospects of making the World Cup squad
Pakistan’s spot-fixing tainted trio; former Test captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif are in a state of limbo concerning their future in Pakistan cricket.
The team management is already looking for replacements of these players for the World Cup in 2011. This was quite evident in the series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/United-Arab-Emirates-c3033 where Pakistan experimented by playing some
new faces in the team.
Pakistan’s intentions were obvious, when on return from the tour the team head coach, Intikhab Alam, told the press that the management was satisfied with the performance of the players, and the young players performed to the best
of their abilities. “Wahab Riaz and Tanvir Ahmed did an excellent job in the test series and would prove to be ideal replacements of Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif.” Intikhab said.
However, the fact remains that http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 has not managed to find a bowler who has the same sting as Mohammad Amir. The young bowler was expected to have had a major influence on the coming World Cup, had he not been involved in
the spot-fixing debacle.
Amir along with Butt and Asif has been charged with spot-fixing and the trio is facing a suspension by the International Cricket Council from all forms of cricket.
The problem for Pakistan is that these three players were the backbone of the current Pakistani outfit, especially both the bowlers; Amir and Asif were spearheading the Pakistani bowling attack right before they were caught in
an embarrassing situation of spot-fixing. Both these bowlers were the poster-boys of Pakistan, who could run havoc against any batting line-up of the world.
The initial sympathy that the players had is gone. The trio must be feeling as the loneliest people on the planet. Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir tried to gather some public support by claiming they were unjustly treated in the
International Cricket Council’s preliminary hearing. This appeal was rejected and the players erupted like a volcano, which led to statements against the cricket’s governing body.
Perhaps, the tainted players gave such statements in order to garner support from different sections of the society, but this clearly backfired and the Pakistan Cricket Board suspended their central contracts with immediate effect.
Even when the spot-fixing accusations were first levelled on the players, the Pakistan Cricket Board had pulled out its entire support for the players. The Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128 has stated time and again that
the players are on their own and the board will not support them in any way whatsoever. Such attitude by the board has been a major setback for the suspended trio and added to their worries.
Nonetheless, some believe that the players should be considered innocent until proven otherwise. Former Pakistan Cricket coach, Geoff Lawson believes that the players might have been forced to fix matches out of the fear for their
lives. He said, “The culture in Pakistan is too far removed from the rest of the world. I will not be surprised if one finds out that the players were threatened or their families were put to risk in order to make them do the unthinkable.”
An official hearing of the spot-fixing case will take place from 6th to 11th January in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Qatar-c2986. The outcome of this hearing is crucial for the three players, because the Pakistan Cricket Board cannot select
them for the World Cup squad until and unless they are cleared by the International Cricket Council. For now, Pakistan has no option but to stay prepared to go into the 2011 Cricket World Cup without these three players.
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