"Spot-fixing could be widespread": Imran Khan
Pakistan’s former cricket captain Imran Khan said on Friday that the way spot-fixing was revealed to the world just shows how deep rooted it has become in the world of cricket and there is absolutely no proper way to tell how much it has spread in the sport.
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Imran said, “If what News Of The World [tabloid] has uncovered is spot fixing, then I am afraid it could be a lot more than what you could imagine because, clearly, it wasn’t the ICC investigations that uncovered these allegations. So, God knows how much of this goes on? How can anyone tell whether someone has bowled no balls after being paid money or it’s an accident? In my opinion, there has to be a worldwide investigation into this because it could be widespread. It is impossible to detect. ICC has to come up with innovative ways of finding it out. If Pakistani players are involved, they must be punished.”
When asked about the tainted players (Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif), Imran said that the players should be considered innocent until they are proven guilty by the ICC tribunal.
Imran feels that the current troubling times of Pakistan Cricket can be resolved by the overhauling of the entire cricket setup in the country. He said, “Unfortunately, its the way cricket is run. President of the country appoints cricket board chairman and that’s where things going wrong. The only qualification for chairman is that President likes him and he’s accountable to no one. Basically, it’s ad hoc basis on which the team is run, The moment team loses, there’s pressure on team. He (board chairman) wants to do something… sacks captain. We had five different captains in one year. You can’t have stability in team if captains keep changing.”
Currently, three Pakistani players are facing charges of spot-fixing and are doubtful of playing in the 2011 World Cup which has dented Pakistan’s chances of doing well in the World tournament.
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