Accused cricketers deny match-fixing charges

Karachi, Sept 25: Four Pakistan players accused of having information that a match was being fixed have denied the allegation in the presence of accuser Rashid Latif before the judicial commission.

Saeed Anwar, Inzamamul Haq, Waqar Younis and Akram Raza denied the charges during the course of cross-examination held at the Lahore High Court, registrar Abdus Salam Khawar said from the Punjab metropolis.

Rashid Latif, who has refused to retract his allegations, was also cross-examined by Tariq Raheem and Azmat Saeed, counsel of Wasim Akram and Salim Malik respectively.

Arrest warrants for Zahid Fazal were issued when he failed to appear before Justice Qayyum. He has been instructed now to appear on Sept 28 along with former captain Imran Khan.

The four players were summoned after Rashid Latif submitted five audio cassettes to Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum. The cassettes carried conversation regarding the alleged fixing of a match against Australia at Colombo in 1994, Salam Khawar said.

In the cassette, Salim Malik was heard offering Rashid Latif to become a party to match-fixing (against Australia). Rashid informed the honourable judge that the offer was made in the presence of the five players. On the basis of the audio cassettes and Rashid's pin-pointing the players, they were summoned for cross-examination, Salam Khawar said.

Salam Khawar, however, said during the cross-examination, the four players vehemently denied Rashid Latif's claim. "During the examination, the four players said Rashid was a liar while Rashid said the similar words about the four players," Salam Khawar added.

"The judge had prepared certain questions after listening to the audio cassettes. Those questions were placed before the four players," Salam Khawar said. He said Inzamamul Haq informed Justice Qayyum that he had aggregated 175 odd runs in that tournament but could not recall his contribution in the match against Australia. Waqar Younis was questioned how many wides Wasim Akram bowled in that match. "Waqar also couldn't recall." "Saeed Anwar informed the judge that he only came to know about match-fixing through Rashid Latif. He further said that he has never been offered bribe to play badly," the registrar added.

On the summoning of Zahid Fazal, Khawar Salam said it has been alleged that the player was 12th man in the match against Australia and allegedly carried a message from the dressing room to Saeed Anwar.

Imran Khan, Salam Khawar continued, has been asked to appear to make clarifications regarding his statement. "Since Justice Qayyum is reading all the statements as he is finalizing his report, he might have observed some discripency in Imran Khan's statement."

On Sept 28, Tariq Raheem and Azmat Saeed will examin Rashid Latif on the basis of the audio cassettes, a copy of which was delivered to the two lawyers.

Another copy of the audio cassettes has been delivered to Ata-ur-Rehman who will also appear on Sept 28 to explain his position.