Mohammad Amir - A young man that needs to get back on the straight and narrow

Almost two months into their sentences, there’s been much debate about whether Mr Justice Cooke got the sentences right for Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir. Yet certainly in Amir’s case, this isn’t about the length of sentence or the punishment itself, even.

If his sentence does not reform him, then Amir may have been a corrupt cheater, but the failings against him would have been far worse – and that’s without considering how such a young, talented man was failed before the spot-fixing scandal broke.

Justice should not be just about punishment. Real justice should have an element of rehabilitation to it. It’s not only about the punishment, but more importantly, it’s about the lesson. Will the custodial sentences handed out to Butt, Asif and Amir teach them that what they did was wrong? In Butt and Asif’s case, I’m not really bothered, but Mohammed Amir will have many years ahead of him in cricket, and his sentence would have needed to act as education to him too.

In an interview with Sky Sports News a while ago, Michael Atherton spoke about how Amir should be given a second chance and welcomed back into cricket after he has served his sentence and ICC ban. I would be inclined to agree with that, but Amir would have to have fundamentally changed as a person by then.

Throughout the scandal, up until the court case, Amir along with Butt and Asif has been pleading his innocence despite all the evidence against him. Even now, we still hear interviews from the families of all three men, saying how their sons are innocent and haven’t done anything wrong. How can this be? What do the players themselves think about what they have done and what have they been telling their families?

For me, this is a social issue, linked to the blasé attitude towards corruption and the prevalent moral turpitude that exists amongst many in Pakistan society. In a country where a man wanted by Interpol is elected president, a deliberate no-ball in a cricket match is just a no-ball – it is insignificant. Despite Amir and Asif’s guilty pleas and Butt’s punishment, I wouldn’t be surprised if the three still believed that they’ve hardly done anything wrong.

It’s a mentality that is very easy to criticise, but very difficult to understand for those that have grown up here and in other more developed countries. Take for instance the fact that faith is important to many of the Pakistani players, yet even in that infamous Test match where he was cheating, we saw Amir do the sajda (prostration) upon getting a wicket. So as a God-fearing person, did he really think he was doing something so wrong by bowling a no-ball? It appears he didn’t.

So can we, looking on from our ivory towers over here in our developed West really pass judgement? Is it fair to apply our rules and judge them by our laws and form opinion from what we would consider acceptable living in the society we live? Certainly if we applied the two allegations that were applied to the players against many in that country, then we’d have a problem on our hands. Yet that is a failure of the leaders who have for decades failed to serve the interest of the man on the street. So just like the people have been failed by the powers that be in Pakistan, was Amir not also failed by the PCB and the ICC?

Unlicensed agents buzzing around impressionable young stars is something the Pakistan board should have been very wary of since the Justice Qayyum report over a decade ago. Yet it was allowed to happen freely. The ICC was spending millions on its ACSU unit yet it took an English tabloid and a relatively simple sting to uncover the biggest scandal in cricket.

If Amir comes out of Feltom and returns from his ban still thinking that what he did was ‘just a no-ball’, then the British justice system, along with the PCB and ICC, would have also failed Mohammad Amir.

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Tabrez Ali Janjua also writes at www.khelopakistan.com

Both Butt and Asif were found guilty by a unanimous verdict in regards to the charge of conspiracy to cheat, and by a 10-2 majority verdict in regards to the charge of conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments.

The three players now await sentencing

Conspiracy to cheat carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison and/or an unlimited fine. Conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments carries the heavier sentence of up to seven years in prison and/or an unlimited fine.

The judge will now consider the verdict before the sentences will be pronounced later this week. In the mean time, both players remain on bail.

It has also emerged that Mohammed Amir had pleaded guilty to the charges on September the 16th, yet the news was not allowed to be reported due to court restrictions in place that would prevent the verdict of jurors from being unfairly influenced in regards to Butt and Asif.

At the time, Amir’s barrister Ben Emmerson QC said “Amir wants to make it clear he wants to take full responsibility for what he did by bowling two deliberate no-balls. This vulnerable 18-year-old boy, as he was then, was subjected to extreme pressure from those upon whom he should have been able to rely. He recognises the damage he has caused Pakistan cricket and he wishes to do his best to put that right”

By making Amir out to be the “vulnerable 18-year-old boy”, Amir’s legal team is hoping that he will receive a lighter sentence. Yet the prosecution presented a number of key bits of evidence that could be interpreted as Amir being everything but the innocent and vulnerable boy his team is trying to present him as.

Key to the prosecution’s evidence is a number of text messages Amir had sent to some unknown numbers and also to Azher Majeed, brother of the agent at the center of the scandal, Mazhar Majeed. One text message read: “Amir here, don’t call my phone, ICC-police have taken my phone, are you able to delete those calls you made to me? If you can do it okay, don’t reply”.

Whilst Pakistan fans were hoping for some clemency to be shown to Amir, evidence of his involvement in what went on has cast doubt over whether any leniency will be shown by the judge towards him. Of course, the one thing in his favour is that he did plead guilty, thus it is probably a given that he will receive a lighter sentence than Butt and Asif who have throughout the case maintained their innocence despite the overwhelming evidence against them. The best Amir can probably hope for is a heavy fine, but we will find out later this week how much lighter his sentence is than the one Butt and Asif are to receive.

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Tabrez Ali Janjua also writes at www.khelopakistan.com

Likely custodial sentences will come as a shock to the players

The jury in the spot fixing case has currently retired to consider its verdict, leaving many Pakistan fans wondering about the nature of any possible sentence should Salman Butt and Mohammed Asif be found guilty.

The two players in court are facing charges of conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments and conspiracy to cheat. Mohammed Amir and agent Mazhar Majeed had themselves earlier this year pleaded guilty to the charges.

Obtaining and accepting corrupt payments is an offence contrary to section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906. It carries a maximum sentence of seven years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine. Cheating is an offence contrary to section 42 of the Gambling Act 2005. It carries a maximum sentence of two years’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.

The maximum sentence for the above two offences does not only apply to the offence itself, but also to the conspiracy to commit such an offence, as is alleged in the case of Butt and Asif. So which kind of sentence are the players likely to receive?

The first thing we would have to consider is whether the duo is likely to be found guilty of the alleged offences. Personally, I feel that the writing is on the wall for a number of reasons. The ICC has already found them guilty of spot fixing and handed out their punishments. Though far from a legal court, their investigations must have had some proof to go on for them to hand out such long term bans.

Then there is the fact that both Amir and Majeed have admitted to spot fixing i.e. basically admitting that a crime had taken place. Their confession therefore implies that Butt and Asif would have been involved to some degree. Before sending the jury out to deliberate, Justice Cooke’s direction to aid the jury in their decision making was: “You can proceed on the basis that Majeed and Amir were involved in the spot-fixing at Lord’s, as all parties agree that is the case”.

Finally, there is the fact that neither Butt nor Asif stuck to the same story. They were seen to turn on one another through their lawyers a number of times during the case, undermining one another’s story. In fact, these denials and counter claims regarding one another’s stories points to an inherent distrust, suspicion and treachery among the two – common attributes of wrongdoers. As the old saying goes, ‘there’s no honour among thieves’.

So, the likelihood is that they will both be found guilty on at least one or both the charges. The one thing Asif has going for him in regards to the offence of conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments is that none of the money handed over to Majeed by the News of the World reporter was found with Asif. Even then, Asif is looking at a maximum prison sentence of two years if found guilty of the offence of cheating.

Due to the seriousness of the charges and the huge sums of money involved, expect Mr Justice Cooke to hand down a custodial sentence to both Butt and Asif, should they be found guilty. It will send a tremor across the cricketing world, but maybe some time in prison is exactly what is required, with all three of the players demonstrating a nonchalant and dismissive attitude to authority and the seriousness of the alleged crimes since the scandal broke. It’d give them plenty of time to think about their actions and the people they have allegedly cheated.

With a prison sentence likely, we must now await the jury’s verdict and then sentencing from the judge to be sure. Due to the complexities of the case and the bundles of evidence to consider, it should be said that the jury’s deliberation could well run into next week. If that is the case, the judge, Mr Justice Cooke, may well accept a majority verdict rather than the unanimous one he had initially asked for.

Tabrez Ali Janjua also writes at www.khelopakistan.com

Mohsin Khan - A defensive minded coach?

What I saw last Saturday is something I never want associated with Pakistan cricket, and neither is it something I would want to see in sport in general, or in any contest for that matter. To not even try, however small the chance of victory, defies the purpose of playing any sport.

As the Pakistan batsmen came out to bat needing 170 off 21 overs in the final innings of the first Test against Sri Lanka, their fans around the world sat riveted to their TV screens, anticipating an enthralling run chase. But as ball after ball was blocked, it was obvious that going for the win was not what was discussed amongst the Pakistan team management in the interval.

When asked after the game, interim coach Mohsin Khan’s response was “…we felt we didn’t want to make a mess of things…We decided that given the field set, we would opt to bat out time”. Now this is in stark contrast to what the coach was saying just a few days earlier. When speaking of the ‘successful risk’ the Pakistan selectors had taken in picking a young squad for the recent tour of Zimbabwe, Khan said “To achieve a big goal, you have to take risks…As a selector, or now a coach, I won’t be afraid of taking a risk”. Easier said than done, right Mohsin?

170 runs off 21 overs works out at just over 8 runs an over. Now had Pakistan – with 10 wickets in hand, on a docile track – scored 60 off the first 5 overs for example, it would have left them with around 6 and a half runs per over from there on. Suddenly, things don’t seem that impossible do they? Even if Pakistan had lost 2-3 wickets trying to chase the win, they could have still then reined themselves in and started blocking. Sri Lanka would have realised in just a few overs that a draw was on the cards and the captains would have shook hands early, meaning Pakistan wouldn’t have needed to bat out the full 21 overs to then save the game anyway.

While there is an inherent risk of losing wickets whilst playing attacking cricket, there is no guarantee that you won’t lose wickets playing defensively, as Taufiq Umar demonstrated. Now he could quite easily have gone down fighting, losing his wicket whilst attacking rather than the good for nothing manner in which he did. At least we would have then been closer to having some idea of whether a win was possible.

There was an argument that Sri Lanka had no field restrictions and it would have been difficult to score boundaries, yet 2s and 3s could have been picked up relatively comfortably, and would have caused Dilshan to make a few enforced field changes, bringing some players in. As mentioned in Cricinfo’s text commentary, it was a relatively large outfield too.

Many have placed the blame of not attacking squarely on captain Misbah’s head. Yet for me, this would have been a decision influenced by the team management and coach in particular. Another thing that points to this is that former coach Waqar Younis said himself on commentary that he’d have been trying for a win i.e. giving us some insight into the psyche of the Pakistan decision making machine pre-Mohsin Khan. And of course, far from being a yes man, Misbah is not the type to cause discord hence would have gone with the coach’s suggestion. The power dynamic within the Pakistan camp would dictate that a coach would be able to enforce his decision on a captain, rather than a captain on a coach, meaning that even if Misbah would have wanted to go for the chase, he wouldn’t have been able to.

I cannot, for one second, imagine the Australians not going for a win had they been in a similar situation. The attitude Pakistan displayed was not the attitude of winners. If we do not test ourselves, we will never know how good we can become. While drawn Test matches may suit our neighbours over the border, this cautiousness and lack of adventurousness is not the Pakistan way – cornered tigers are braver than that.

Those fans that wanted Pakistan to attack on that last day came in for some harsh criticism with suggestions that a t20 mentality had overtaken them. Yet this is nothing to do with t20 cricket – Pakistan should have at least attempted to go for the 8 an over target regardless. If anything, it is the Test match mentality that has done Test cricket harm here. You don’t play Test cricket to draw. Test cricket is still about the contest, still about trying to win. It is called ‘Test’ cricket after all.

Sport is a test of human endeavour. Great things are achieved, records are broken by people that try, by people that TEST themselves. Having been so far ahead in the game and having dropped so many catches, Pakistan should have wanted to come out and try and win the game to make up for their complacency. They should have felt this urge.

If the thrill of the chase, the courage needed to test oneself is too much for them, then why play at all? Why not just quit cricket altogether, marry an Indian actress, move to Bombay and become an Indian film actor. They certainly have the perfect coach to show them how to do that.

Tabrez Ali Janjua also writes at www.khelopakistan.com

The ICC - Different rules for different teams

It has been reported that the ICC’s anti-corruption and security unit (ACSU) may be investigating Australia’s World Cup game against Zimbabwe after the Australians got off to a uncharacteristically slow start to their innings. When supposedly pressed on the matter, cricinfo reports that the “ICC said it did not comment on any ACSU matter, including whether or not a match had been investigated”. Really?

Back in September you may remember how there was a second round of allegations that followed the News of the World sting, that the Pakistan team were match-fixing. This time it was the Sun Newspaper, which had apparently handed over evidence to ACSU. The ICC’s response then was to go public on the matter, telling the media that Pakistan were being investigated by ACSU again, and remarkably, this was even before informing the PCB itself. So why the double standards? Why the hush-hush when it comes to the Australians but the indiscreet nonchalance when it came to the Pakistanis? Let’s remember, the Pakistan team, which did not include the suspended trio of Asif, Amir and Butt, were found completely innocent of the allegations in the end, despite having to cope with a trial by media due to the ICC’s blunder.

In defence of the Australians, teams are allowed to play slow as long as the intention is pure and it is a tactic employed to win the game. But whether there was something sinister in it or not is a separate issue, it is the ICC’s double standards that is the point of discussion here.

Will Pakistan raise issue with the ICC? I doubt it. They clearly have a inferiority complex and thus will continue to be treated as inferior by the governing body and their officials.

On a side note; what has happened to Ijaz Butt? England, who Pakistan have just had a highly charged series with, and India, Pakistan’s arch rivals, have just played out a tie in a World Cup match. Added to this, Shane Warne, previously linked to match fixing, actually predicted a tie. Am I the only one who is amazed that Ijaz Butt has managed to keep his mouth shut and has not questioned the result?!

Pakistan: Shahzaib Hasan, Imran Farhat, Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Akmal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi*, Abdul Razzaq, Zulqarnain Haider†, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Akhtar

South Africa: GC Smith, LL Bosman, AB de Villiers†, JP Duminy, CA Ingram, DA Miller, JA Morkel, J Botha*, M Morkel, J Theron, LL Tsotsobe

Pakistan go in as expected although I personally would have opted for Shafiq instead of Farhat. Kallis and Steyn are missing for South Africa which is a big loss. Pakistan should consider themselves favourites.

2nd T20 teams:

Both sides go in with the same 11. Typical of Pakistan’s recent selections, as they fail to make the required brave changes.

Ijaz Butt multi-tasks: On the phone and reading the newspaper upside down at the same time. Isn't Pakistan cricket lucky?!

Ijaz Butt’s outburst was a real chance for the ECB and ICC to do something for Pakistan cricket in helping to remove Butt from his position as captain of the Pakistan ship. But a simple apology from Butt means that all is well and good once again. For the ECB, ICC and Ijaz Butt, it is at least, but under Butt’s command the Pakistan ship continues to drift into rough seas towards rocky shores.

I was hoping that Butt would be stubborn as usual and refuse to apologise, forcing the ECB to take him to court, and the ICC to suspend him. But deep down there was a feeling that he would retract his comments with a grovelling apology in a desperate attempt to hold onto his position. Self-preservation has always been Ijaz Butt’s main goal.

The ICC, it is believed, were ready to suspend Butt yet preferred to give him time to retract his comments and issue an apology. The head of each ICC member board automatically becomes an ICC Director, and it is from this role that the ICC could have suspended Butt. Yet instead of getting their hands dirty, they waited, as they love to do, rather than take the lead as the game’s governing body and take the required action against a guy that cricket does not need.

The ECB had taken their position very early in threatening legal action unless Butt apologised. I get the feeling that any legal battle may have overlapped their beloved up and coming Ashes series as court cases are generally long and drawn out, and England did not want to be dragged into such a distraction. Nevertheless, the allegations were grave and I’m surprised the ECB has settled for a simple apology.

Giles Clarke, the ECB Chairman, who heads the task force in trying to help out Pakistan cricket, has been a great support in trying times for Pakistan. By taking legal action against Ijaz Butt, here was a chance that he and the ECB could have taken that would have helped Pakistan cricket no end. Unfortunately, it does seem that in the end, everyone including the ICC and ECB, were in it for their own good. It does not seem as if the change will come from the outside so now and it must come from the inside, but who?

A PCB statement read: “The PCB and the Pakistan players completely reject the allegations made by the Sun newspaper and the ICC yesterday about the Pakistan team’s conduct in the 3rd Nat West ODI at The Brit Insurance Oval.

“The allegation’s were wholly irresponsible and completely without foundation.”

“The PCB expresses its gratitude for the outstanding conduct of the Pakistan team since after the first spot fixing story broke and will take all legal and disciplinary action which may result from these allegations.”

“It remains in the best interests of world cricket, the players and in particular of cricket supporters that the tour should continue, and it would set a dangerous precedent to call off a tour based on the misguided and inaccurate allegations of an English tabloid.”

Pakistan’s recently appointed new Chief Executive said: “We are looking for an apology. If it does not come we’ll look at other options. You can’t impugn someone’s integrity without having proper evidence.”

“To date I can say that we have received zero evidence of anything having influenced any Pakistan player since the three players were sent home. Clearly we will seek advice but there are quite strong laws of defamation.”

Earlier, an ex-Pakistani captain said: “I’d be making a few phone calls to legal sources to try to take this a little bit further. I can’t think of anything worse than your name mentioned in terms of fixing a game of cricket.”

Pakistan’s current captain Shahid Afridi said: “We would like to express our surprise, dismay and outrage at the comments made by the ICC and the Sun newspaper. We are deeply concerned and disappointed that our integrity as cricketers has been brought into question again”

“We refute these allegations completely and will be working closely with the PCB to explore all legal options open to us.”

“Under the circumstances, we have strong misgivings about continuing to play the last two games of the current series and urge the English team and management to distance themselves from the Newspaper’s allegations.”

“We do, however, recognise our responsibilities to the game of cricket — and in particular to the cricket-loving public in this country — and will therefore endeavour to fulfil these fixtures to the best of our ability.”

Despite the appeals from captain Shahid Afridi, unfortunately it seems that the ECB’s players have failed to distance themselves from the allegations as it was reported that Jonathan Trott, England’s South African star, made fixing remarks to Pakistan’s Pakistani star, Wahab Riaz, which resulted in an ugly altercation in which Trott ended up grabbing Wahab by the throat.

The Newspaper allegations and the ICC’s conduct has also managed to influence the likes of Ian Botham who, despite nothing being proven, has decided to call for Pakistan to be banned from international cricket. Ian Botham has as of yet failed to explain why his stance has changed as he had no such wish after the initial spot fixing allegations during the fourth Test at Lord’s.*

*All quotes are that of either the ECB, Michael Vaughan or England captain Andrew Strauss. The words in bold have been changed simply to demonstrate the holier-than-thou, self-righteousness of the English board, players, pundits and media in feeling hurt when Pakistan had the same accusations flung at them but did not react like the English have.

The difference is England were accused by an idiot in Ijaz Butt, someone who not many people pay attention to, but Pakistan were accused by cricket’s governing body and by an English newspaper; yes, a newspaper from the land of these sanctimonious saints. Shouldn’t Pakistan be the ones upset? Shouldn’t Pakistan be the ones taking legal action? Shouldn’t Pakistan have been the ones calling meetings on whether to continue the tour?

The only evidence of ball tampering in the fourth ODI at Lord's as Paul Collingwood uses the wrong ball (his own) to knock off the bails

So what’s the next accusation the English media have in store for Pakistan? Whilst they’ve broke three match fixing stories, the next one will probably be about how Umar Gul was able to reverse swing the ball so much in engineering England’s downfall in both the last two ODIs.

In both matches, there was a sense of inevitability as Umar Gul and Shaoib Akhtar  began to reverse swing the ball as English wickets tumbled. It was as if the hand of God was guiding the ball down the wicket and giving it a little sideways nudge at the end. It was signature Pakistan. No other bowling attack in the world could ever attest to showing such quality swing bowling in cleaning up a batting line up.

As the whiter ball came into play in the 35th over of the fourth ODI, you could see the cameras starting to zoom in on the Pakistan players’ hands to check if there was anything untoward going on. There was even a comment by one of the commentators at how remarkable it is that a newish second ball can begin to reverse in and around the 42nd over, just 7 overs after it had been taken.

The ball tampering accusations were hurled at us in 1992 with Waqar and Wasim and it may happen again, but as Geoffrey Boycott said back then, “they could have bowled England out with an orange”.

Having received evidence from the newspaper, the ICC have felt it necessary to launch an investigation into allegations that the Pakistan batting innings was scripted, with scoring patterns in two specific overs matching the evidence provided to the ICC before the game. Could something still be going on or could the said scoring patterns have been just a coincidence?

The fact that the ICC felt it necessary to launch an investigation will point to them having some substantial evidence to do so. But there are a number of reasons why these recent ongoings may just be a coincidence.

With the spotlight of the world on the Pakistan side, would anyone in the team have been brave or foolish enough to take instructions from bookies? I would be very surprised if this was the case. Secondly, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir who had been implicated previously are no longer in the side. Salman Butt was even referred to as the ringleader, so with the aforementioned not being there would something untoward still be going on? Also, with the police on Mazhar Majeed’s tail, it would be highly unlikely that he would still have contact with any of the players let alone be setting up fixes. It’s certain any other agent looking from the outside wouldn’t have dared try anything now too.

Which batsmen could have been involved?
If you look at the Pakistani line up, the only player there to have been linked with the original scandal was Kamran Akmal. Yet just looking at his innings on the day would tell you that Akmal wasn’t in long enough to carry out any instructions and neither would his freak dismissal (the ball deflected off the underside of his thigh pad, behind his leg and onto the stumps) have been something purposely planned out.

It is yet to be revealed the two overs in which the alleged fixed scoring pattern took place or who was at the crease at the time. We’ve already seen why it probably wasn’t Kamran Akmal so if it is true who could it have been?

Mohammad Hafeez, along with Akmal fell in the first three overs and both made 1 and 5 respectively so it’s unlikely it could have been them. The next batting partnership was between Asad Shafiq who has just got into the side and Mohammad Yousuf, a deeply religious guy, who himself has recently returned having been sidelined because of infighting. Neither of them would seem likely to do anything sinister. After Yousuf’s dismissal, we had the Shafiq and Fawad Alam partnership. Fawad is another battling to secure his place and his innings was no different to his usual. Then there was Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq, all them would have came in at points in the innings where the total at that oint in time would have been not something they could have controlled. Akmal would have been less likely to do something due to the suspicion surrounding his brother and Razzaq and Afridi played the types of innings you would usually associate with them. Also, being the captain of a side that is under the microscope with all that has gone on, Afridi would be even less likely to get involved with something. I think his response to the recent allegations “All this is rubbish”, said it all. He is frustrated as any Pakistan fan that new allegations have been thrown at the team in the attempt to kick them whilst they’re down.

Individual batsmen aside, I think the rate at which the wickets fell and the mode of many of the dismissals means that scripting a specific target over two overs would have been very difficult to achieve unless more than at least three players were involved. Considering all the evidence, I’d be surprised if there was any truth in the Sun’s allegations but you just never know.

ICC – Inept and crass as the PCB
The ICC was very quick to reveal to the media that they had begun investigations on what are just allegations without considering the potential consequences on Pakistan cricket. Indeed, they did not even inform the Pakistan Cricket Board that they were about to do so. It seems the spot fixing scandals have woken the ICC up from their slumber and highlighted the ineffectiveness of their Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU). Now the world is watching, the ditherers at the ICC feel they have to be seen and heard to be doing something, whatever that may be. They could have prevented the trial by media the Pakistan team has been and will be subjected to but instead they took the main role. In general, the ICC’s actions seem very much like those of an organisation that is always chasing the the crime rather than preventing it from happening.

Crude Flower and classy Strauss
Andy Flower has opened his mouth again and you would have to wonder if he thinks before he speaks. He felt it necessary to give his view on the Sun’s allegations saying “From a selfish perspective it’s really annoying because it devalues our Test series and it’s also devaluing this one-day series”. With two ODIs left to go, the ECB can’t have been too happy with Flowers comments as they battle to fill the seats in the grounds. Flowers comments are in direct contrast to that of England captain Andrew Strauss who, when questioned, made it clear that credibility in the allegations had still to be substantiated saying “we don’t know how credible the evidence is” and “[The ODIs have] been three very hard-fought cricket matches. There certainly seems to be passion on both sides, they’ve been high intensity affairs”. He went on: “The only thing you can say is give the benefit of the doubt that these allegations are well off the mark. That is certainly my attitude at the moment – because I would be dumbfounded if it was taking place after everything that has gone on in the Test series.” Flower could learn a thing or two from his captain. Maybe Andy is feeling the pressure and trying to deflect the attention after England not performing as well in the ODIs as they had hoped especially with the World Cup around the corner.

Ijaz Butt loses the plot
So as to be not outdone by the ineptitude of the ICC, PCB chairman Ijaz Butt has responded with some remarkable claims of his own. He alleges that English players were involved in match fixing in the third ODI saying “There is loud and clear talk in bookie circles that some English players have taken enormous amounts of money to lose the match [the third ODI]. No wonder there was such a collapse”. He also claimed that there was a “conspiracy to defraud Pakistan cricket” by various people and groups.I hope for the sake of Pakistan cricket that he has some real evidence because it’s not as if certain players haven’t brought enough embarrassment on this nation and it’s cricket. Should Butt’s claims fail to stand up, we may well see Pakistan losing it’s member status in international cricket.

Truth in the allegations against Pakistan or not, I think the newspaper certainly got their required response with the ICC jumping the gun, the ECB holding meetings in regards to the tour, England’s coach Andy Flower saying the series has become devalued, South Africa already feeling the need to speak out on whether the games against them will go ahead in the UAE, and pundits everywhere questioning the future of Pakistan Cricket. Allegations or not, the reaction from various corners has been quite pathetic, sad, irresponsible and inconsiderate.