South African players have qualms about playing Pakistan
The Proteas are all set to play five ODIs and three Tests against Pakistan as well as a few T20’s, the second of which was agreed to by South African Cricket officials to help with the flood relief efforts in Pakistan.
However, in the midst of the controversial series in England that led to a spate of allegations against the Pakistan players, controversy seemed to have been an integral part of the series, many South African players have admitted that they have qualms about
playing Pakistan in UAE.
"To say we are reluctant is an understatement", one senior player said on condition of anonymity. Going on to say, "Nobody knows what the h**l is going on in Pakistani cricket and we feel that playing such a high profile series right now - especially in
the middle east - is asking for trouble”.
These concerns are raised in the wake of the highly erratic statement made by the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board. Who incidentally has made counter-allegations against the English players in a television interview to the Indian News channel NDTV,
where he said that there were talks in the bookie circles that England players might have accepted bribes to throw the third ODI against Pakistan.
Given the brilliant performance by Umar Gul, such a statement was indeed bizarre and completely undermined Pakistan’s efforts in the match winning performance.
The England Cricket Board has threatened http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128 with legal action if he does not issue a public apology. However, Mr. Butt has refused to do so and may now be considering legal action against Jonathan Trott, for assault on a Pakistani player, Wahab Riaz.
There have been calls of banning Pakistan cricket from the International arena and the South African players hinted that the ICC must take some action till Pakistan cricket achieves some stability.
"The fact that there are now further incidents under investigation is not good news. This all needs to be dealt with urgently in order to ensure that a heavy cloud of suspicion and doubt doesn't hang over our series against Pakistan", Tony Irish chief executive
of SA Cricketers Association said. He hoped that it would not come to the point where some senior players opted out of the tournament since they had seemed reluctant.
While a senior South African Cricketer exclaimed, "Maybe it's time for the ICC to step in, or for Pakistan to withdraw from the international game for a year until the mess can be cleaned up and people can start to believe in the game and develop a bit of
trust".
Pakistan is running out of options to host their games at neutral venues keeping in view the economic recession that has hit parts of UAE and may need to think of viable options for them to hold a tournament. The Zimbabwe Cricket Board has expressed its
willingness to let the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 Cricket Board use their facilities to host a cricket tournament in the country.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045 is scheduled to tour Pakistan in January to help raise funds for flood relief, however, in the wake of the match fixing and spot fixing allegations some officials admit that they were now being forced to “think again” about their offer to tour the
country.
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