scary
Politcal Worker (100+ posts)
Imran Khan today implored cricket's leaders to resist calls to ban Pakistan after a summer of spot-fixing allegations threatened to make them the outsiders of the world game.
South Africa and New Zealand, Pakistan's next scheduled opponents, are thought to have reservations about facing them following the events of their tour of England, which concludes with today's final NatWest Series game at The Rose Bowl in Southampton.
Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt faces possible legal action from England cricketers after he alleged they had been paid to lose last Friday's one-day international at The Brit Insurance Oval. And since three Pakistan players were suspended by the International Cricket Council for alleged spot fixing in last month's Lord's Test, the tour has degenerated into chaos and acrimony.
But Imran, Pakistan's most famous cricketer who now heads the Movement for Justice political party, does believe that an inquiry is necessary after an extremely damaging summer for the sport in his country.
It is time we had a proper inquiry and put an end to this matter. These allegations have badly damaged our cricket image and our players, said Imran, who captained his country at various stages between 1982 and 1992.
But in any form of illegal activity you cannot give collective punishment to a country and deprive millions of fans, more so because these are still allegations yet to be proven.
Despite his appeal for leniency from the ICC, Imran is angry with Ijaz Butt for his role in exacerbating a tense situation.
After Butt claimed that members of the England team had taken huge amounts of money to throw the match at The Oval, Andrew Strauss's side came close to pulling out of Monday's fourth one-day international at Lord's, while England's Jonathan Trott and Pakistan's Wahab Riaz almost came to blows in the nets prior to play.
It was a wrong move by the PCB chairman; he should not have done this, added Imran (right). It is not correct to assume that if our players are being accused of being involved in spot fixing, players of other countries might also be involved in the same thing.
But there should no longer be a PCB chairman appointed by the President of Pakistan who is not accountable to anyone. Butt was wrong in levelling allegations. Even if any other team is involved, that does not absolve you.
The collapse in relations between the two sets of players was demonstrated by further inflammatory words from Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi, who claimed his team had done England a favour by not reporting Trott to police for his part in the clash with Riaz.
When Riaz was returning after warming up, Trott called him a match-fixer' and hit his face with the pad, said Afridi ahead of today's one-day series decider. It could have been a police case because it is a crime to hit someone but we did not press for it.
Yet Afridi's team might soon be subjected to further scrutiny, with reports Down Under claiming that the Aussies' Test victory over Pakistan at Lord's in July was now also under investigation. Afridi was captain of that team before quitting Test cricket afterwards.
An ICC spokesman said he knew nothing of this and with Pakistan's performance in two matches already being examined, it is to be hoped that nothing untoward occurred.
The chaos off the field has, remarkably, not affected Pakistan's performances, as their victories at The Oval and Lord's levelled the series at 2-2 and threatened England's record of having won every series this summer.
