http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 Spot-Fixing Scandal: Could Cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif & Amir Now Be Innocent?
The case of the three Pakistani players named in the spot-fixing scandal that appeared in the News of the World tabloid a few days ago seems to have taken another twist. This case is so strange that it may take years to find out the truth behind it all. The latest twist in the tale appears to be that the High Commissioner of Pakistan to the UK, Wajid http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hasan-c61990, says that after consultations with the three players, he thinks they are innocent and they have been set up by the paper. A few interesting things emerge from this new development: who is lying and who is telling the truth? It looks like this confusing situation will have to be worked out by the police.
On Sunday, in an exclusive report by the News of the World paper in the UK, three Pakistani cricketers were named in a spot-fixing scandal. The Test-captain Salman Butt and fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were accused of being involved with a middleman who paid the bowlers to bowl three no-balls in the third day of the Test against England. There was a huge storm in the media and the three cricketers were blasted for being involved in a spot-fixing scandal; careers were on the line and a nation was in mourning over the death of their favourite game. One wonders: did it all go one step too far, too soon? The above-mentioned Pakistani High Commissioner to the UK called a meeting with the three implicated players and the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board. The feeling before the meeting took place was that heads were going to roll, but it actually turned out that the Commissioner felt that the three players were innocent and that they were being set up by the newspaper. Now the situation has started to get very interesting, because if the players are innocent, the News of the World will have some major explaining to do.
Interesting fact: The same day as the High Commissioner was proclaiming the cricketers’ innocence, it was learnt that the News of the World is being investigated for taping the phone of one of its own journalists. The UK press watchdog, Press Complaints Commission, is looking into allegations that the newspaper illegally listened into the conversations of one of its journalists. Is no one clean in this whole sordid affair? If we were to speculate, why would the newspaper make such sensationalist claims about the cricketers? It could have done so to sell more copies of its paper that day and for the next couple of days until the story died down. These again are mere speculations, and we cannot be sure of the truth until a thorough investigation is conducted.
It looks like one of the players at least is in more hot water. Mohammad Asif had a long-standing albeit somewhat secret relationship with a Pakistani actress named Veena Malik. They broke up and now Malik is saying that she has proof that Asif fixed matches and she has given that proof to the ICC. She has allegedly handed over to an ICC employee taped recordings of conversations that the cricketer had with bookies and various other incriminating evidence that shows that Asif was involved in match-fixing. Well, even this side of the story cannot be wholly verified because the actress is known for creating sensationalist news items to remain in the spotlight after a declining career.
Who is dodgy, who is innocent, who is lying and who is telling the truth? No one knows for sure, and we will all have to wait for a proper and conclusive investigation into the matter. We may have to wait a while because we are still in suspense over the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Danish-Kaneria-c1314 and Mervyn Westfield, spot-fixing case to be resolved. The sport of cricket seems to be very tainted at the moment and the one good thing that has come out of all this mess is the fact that a lot of cricketers are claiming that they were approached by bookies and suspicious characters in the past. These types of claims might help to clean up the sport and eradicate match-fixing from cricket once and for all.
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