Pakistan Cricket: Two much-needed moves
This is what most of the Pakistani fans were anxiously waiting for; first, Yawar Saeed to step down from his post of team manager of the Pakistan cricket team, and second, for Ijaz Butt to take some solid action against the indefinite
ban imposed by International Cricket Council on the alleged Pakistani cricket players.
The first decision of Yawar Saeed stepping down was an expected one, as Saeed had indicated and explicitly said on several occasions that Pakistan’s tour of England would very well be his last tour. But the Pakistani fans, despite
his words, waited with abated breath till the manager made the final announcement as both the manager and the chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board are infamous of going against their word and somehow manage to miraculously extend their respective tenures.
This last tour of England did prove to be a tough one for Yawar; according to him, it was the toughest tour for all the players, coaches and himself as it was marred by controversies and allegations.
During the tour the team played four Tests, two T20s and five ODIs against England. However, the tour tilted towards England mostly due to the accusations of spot-fixing against Pakistan captain Salman Butt, and
fast bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, during the Lord's Test match. All three have been provisionally suspended by the ICC while it investigates the allegations. There has been no evidence found against anyone of them yet.
Now, coming to the second good move by the Pakistan cricket board, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128 finally took a stand and is going to London to meet the ICC and question them as to why they have still suspended the alleged trio despite
the fact that no proof or evidence against them has been found.
Butt and the PCB's legal advisor will be travelling to England today and are expected to hold meetings with the lawyers of the three players at the centre of the spot-fixing scandal.
The match-fixing scandal took yet another twist when another British tabloid newspaper “The Sun” published another report claiming that http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 had fixed the third one-day match against England at the Oval. These
claims evoked an investigation by the ICC over scoring rates during the match at The Oval. Following Butt's outburst, where he claimed that according to the bookie circles, England had taken enormous sums of money to lose against Pakistan at the Oval. England,
infuriated with the allegation, came close to withdrawing from the fourth game at Lord's but late-night meetings between Andrew Strauss and the ECB ended with the decision to continue with the series.
However, both Strauss and the board came out with strong statements and have said they will pursue legal action if Butt doesn't apologize. "We would like to express our surprise, dismay and outrage at the comments
made by Mr Butt," Strauss said at the time. "We are deeply concerned and disappointed that our integrity as cricketers has been brought into question. We refute these allegations completely and will be working closely with the ECB to explore all legal options
open to us." The English board has demanded a full, public apology from Butt, however, Ijaz has refused to apologize and is adamant to stick to his earlier stance.
It is still not known whether there will be meetings between Butt and the ECB while the PCB chairman is in London.
The relationship between PCB and ECB deteriorated over the course of the tour, and it seems to be getting worse as the undertones of the statements exchanged between the two boards seem to be sounding harsher
by the day. The only positive aspect for Pakistan, in this entire fiasco, is that for once they stood for themselves and are openly questioning the provisional suspension of the players, as no proof has been found against them. This temporary ban is causing
a lot of anxiety among the Pakistan camp as they have to pick a squad for the matches against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 in UAE, and the selection of players is solely dependent on the availability of the suspended trio.
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