Shamed cricketers prepare for hostile reception on return to Pakistan
Trio to arrive in Lahore in the dead of night to avoid crowds
Minister guarantees they will return for questioning if necessary
When they touch down in Pakistan in the early hours of tomorrow morning the three Pakistani cricketers at the heart of the match-fixing scandal will be arriving at the quietest moment of the year the start of the Eid ul-Fitr holiday, Islam's equivalent of Christmas.
Pakistan's high commissioner to London, Wajid Shams ul Hasan, said Mohammad Amir, Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif had left London on a Kuwait Airways flight. If they take the first connecting flight to Lahore, this would see them arrive just after 4am. Given the levels of opprobrium heaped on the men over the past fortnight, a low-key arrival in the dead of night will suit them fine.
Some supporters have called for them to be hanged or burned; less impulsive ones want them suspended for life. Angry fans have pelted donkeys daubed with the players' names; one Lahore lawyer sought to bring treason charges against them.
On Wednesday the chairman of the national cricket board, Ijaz Butt, was greeted by a raucous crowd crying "Shame!" when he landed in Lahore; one newspaper reported that a fan threw his shoe at him.
But not every Pakistani believes in the players' guilt, with some preferring to see the affair as a murky international conspiracy. This week two major television stations suggested the scandal had been manufactured by Pakistan's arch-rival India in collaboration with the News of the World.
The source of the story, it later emerged, was a small Islamabad tabloid with links to the military and a track record of running anti-India propa****a.
For most cricket-obsessed Pakistanis the scandal is simply a crushing disappointment. "The spot-fixing scandal has broken my heart," wrote novelist Mohsin Hamid in today's Dawn newspaper. "The [video evidence] and the horrifying behaviour of our officials in response are all I need to be convinced that our national cricket administration is rotten to the core."
The sporting humiliation comes on the heels of other national traumas including a major plane crash, Taliban attacks and the largest floods in living memory that have affected 21 million people. And it taps into a profound unease about the direction Pakistan is headed. "You can't divorce the cricket from its context," said Osman Samiuddin, Pakistan editor of cricinfo.com. "It's a product of Pakistan generally."
Once they make it out of the airport a backdoor exit is expected - Asif and Butt are expected to spend the three-day Eid holiday with their families in Lahore, while Amir is likely to head for his hometown of Gujjar Khan in northern Punjab.
They were allowed to leave Britain only after Pakistan's interior minister, Rehman Malik, sent a written undertaking to Scotland Yard that they would be returned to the UK for further questioning if necessary.
One report this week suggested Asif had considering applying for asylum in Britain over fears criminal gangs linked to the betting underworld could target him. The players' solicitor denied the report.
Samiuddin, however, felt they were unlikely to be in personal danger. "They're just going to be made fools of," he said.
As it unfurls the scandal may also have repercussions for the Pakistan Cricket Board and its chairman, Ijaz Butt, who is directly appointed by President Asif Ali Zardari.
There was, however, one note of optimism amid the gloom: eager anticipation of the men's doubles final at the US Open tennis tournament at Flushing Meadows, where Pakistan's Aisam ul-Haq Qureshi and India's Rohan Bopanna were due to compete for the title in an historic sporting cooperation between the two rival nations.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/sep/10/pakistan-reception-betting-scandal
Trio to arrive in Lahore in the dead of night to avoid crowds
Minister guarantees they will return for questioning if necessary
When they touch down in Pakistan in the early hours of tomorrow morning the three Pakistani cricketers at the heart of the match-fixing scandal will be arriving at the quietest moment of the year the start of the Eid ul-Fitr holiday, Islam's equivalent of Christmas.
Pakistan's high commissioner to London, Wajid Shams ul Hasan, said Mohammad Amir, Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif had left London on a Kuwait Airways flight. If they take the first connecting flight to Lahore, this would see them arrive just after 4am. Given the levels of opprobrium heaped on the men over the past fortnight, a low-key arrival in the dead of night will suit them fine.
Some supporters have called for them to be hanged or burned; less impulsive ones want them suspended for life. Angry fans have pelted donkeys daubed with the players' names; one Lahore lawyer sought to bring treason charges against them.
On Wednesday the chairman of the national cricket board, Ijaz Butt, was greeted by a raucous crowd crying "Shame!" when he landed in Lahore; one newspaper reported that a fan threw his shoe at him.
But not every Pakistani believes in the players' guilt, with some preferring to see the affair as a murky international conspiracy. This week two major television stations suggested the scandal had been manufactured by Pakistan's arch-rival India in collaboration with the News of the World.
The source of the story, it later emerged, was a small Islamabad tabloid with links to the military and a track record of running anti-India propa****a.
For most cricket-obsessed Pakistanis the scandal is simply a crushing disappointment. "The spot-fixing scandal has broken my heart," wrote novelist Mohsin Hamid in today's Dawn newspaper. "The [video evidence] and the horrifying behaviour of our officials in response are all I need to be convinced that our national cricket administration is rotten to the core."
The sporting humiliation comes on the heels of other national traumas including a major plane crash, Taliban attacks and the largest floods in living memory that have affected 21 million people. And it taps into a profound unease about the direction Pakistan is headed. "You can't divorce the cricket from its context," said Osman Samiuddin, Pakistan editor of cricinfo.com. "It's a product of Pakistan generally."
Once they make it out of the airport a backdoor exit is expected - Asif and Butt are expected to spend the three-day Eid holiday with their families in Lahore, while Amir is likely to head for his hometown of Gujjar Khan in northern Punjab.
They were allowed to leave Britain only after Pakistan's interior minister, Rehman Malik, sent a written undertaking to Scotland Yard that they would be returned to the UK for further questioning if necessary.
One report this week suggested Asif had considering applying for asylum in Britain over fears criminal gangs linked to the betting underworld could target him. The players' solicitor denied the report.
Samiuddin, however, felt they were unlikely to be in personal danger. "They're just going to be made fools of," he said.
As it unfurls the scandal may also have repercussions for the Pakistan Cricket Board and its chairman, Ijaz Butt, who is directly appointed by President Asif Ali Zardari.
There was, however, one note of optimism amid the gloom: eager anticipation of the men's doubles final at the US Open tennis tournament at Flushing Meadows, where Pakistan's Aisam ul-Haq Qureshi and India's Rohan Bopanna were due to compete for the title in an historic sporting cooperation between the two rival nations.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/sep/10/pakistan-reception-betting-scandal
