Cricket probe conclusions being eagerly awaited (19 July 1999)

19 July 1999

Cricket probe conclusions being eagerly awaited

Lateef Jafri

It is no longer a debatable point that Australia were head and shoulders above Pakistan in all departments of the game and lifted the World Cup at Lord's in what was the easiest possible triumph in the final of the global one-day cricket competition.

As is usually the norm in Pakistan - or the whole of the South Asian region - a vilification campaign follows a sporting setback and no wonder many apparently baseless allegations have been levelled against some of the players, the captain and the tour officials after the Lord's lapse. It was indeed a case of being so near yet so far.

Instead of a balanced assessment of the causes of the humiliating and astonishing rout against Australia there had been efforts at pointing out reasons other than cricketing or technical ones. Though the English media emphasised the overwhelming superiority and total dominance of the Australians on the final day (June 20) it were some Pakistani scribes - pseudo critics to be true - who thought the bookies were behind the sad stumble. The duel, according to them, was fixed and was thrown away in accord with the pre-match scheming of the betting cartels. The punters in England and elsewhere, perhaps throughout the cricketing world, may have lost heavily.

Thankfully the chairman of the board, Khalid Mahmud, with the unanimity of opinion of the Councillors, strongly spurned the growing assumption that monetary deals led to the World Cup debacle. The Council, at its last week's meeting at the Qadhafi Stadium, Lahore, admitted that it was a woeful exhibition of batting, fielding as well as bowling and tried to put forward some other reasons for the anti-climax at the World Cup's final combat. According to the Council the reasons were: (1) injuries to six key players, (2) a few umpiring decisions at crucial moments of the tie, (3) the behaviour of the pitch and weather conditions (4) Saeed Anwar's change of grip and (5) some social pressures.

At the Council deliberations both captain Wasim Akram and tour manager Zafar Altaf were absent, the former was fulfilling his league commitments in Birmingham while the latter was on official visit to Nepal. Moin Khan, vice-captain, represented the squad to clarify the technical points. One finds from his summing-up that the strip was flat and ideal for batting after rain. If that is so why there was a procession to the pavilion and an abject failure on the part of the Pakistani batsmen to face the Australian attack.No doubt it was a splendid new-ball bowling by Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne was a man possessed both in the final and in the earlier tied semifinal against South Africa. Nevertheless, the two bowlers, as also Fleming and Reiffel, could have been handled with correct skill and a careful, technical mode and method - never mind Saeed Anwar's change of grip or old stance and style. Imran Khan, Pakistan's former captain and one of the keenest observers and ablest critics fo the game, in an analysis of the defeat had opined that Pakistan lacked the strong nerves for the big occasion. The toughness of character was missing on the crucial day and they buckled under pressure of the Aussies. He dismissed the idea of a conspiracy behind the loss - the stories of casinos, womanising, drinking, late nights and lastly the reports being given currency these days of match-fixing.

The Board officials should keep aside Bangladesh's upset victory over Pakistan which, under no circumstance, can be treated as a genuine one. No player of Pakistan displayed a free swing of the bat. The seam bowlers delivered numberless long-hops, Saqlain Mushtaq sent lolly-pops, despite a haul of five for 35. There were 40 extras with 28 wides for the Dhaka conglomerate to raise their score, which in a normal situation they could not have done. Perhaps the objective was to push them into the ICC as a full member. Are the Bangladesh cricketers ready to take on the full-strength combinations of the nine Test-playing nations? The answer certainly is in the negative. The Dhaka outfit had just one success against Scotland in the tournament, the other came, courtesy Pakistan, as is usually presumed. Their credentials were as such not accepted by the ICC.

The Council and the Board Chairman have very strongly denied any match-fixing or any off-the-field deal to give the prize to the Australians. The side and the players did not break any night curfew, Moin Khan was clear-cut in telling the Council members as also the media at the sporting centres of the country. This means the rumours regarding Ijaz Ahmed are a part of the character assassination campaign against the team members.

Just to set at rest all rumour-mongering and to scotch the stories of match-fixing and betting the Board Chairman decided to request the Lahore High Court judge, Justice Malik Abdul Qayyum, to include the doubts about the World Cup as well in his investigations into cricket scandals. It is to be seen if the government allows him to widen his terms of reference. But the question is how long will this issue he allowed to linger? It is now almost 10 months that the court has questioned about 55 witnesses - according to some reports 90.

The whole inquest started as a recycling of the probe against Salim Malik. Imran Khan says if the accusations of the Australians were considered to be correct then the penalisation should have been announced about two or three years earlier to take the pressure off the players' shoulders. But when the former PCB setup handed over the case to the former judge of the Supreme Court, Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim, he had ruled that the accusations (of the Australians) were "concocted for reasons best known to the accusers." However, the new officialdom, with Majid Khan as chief executive, was unsatisfied with the investigations conducted by the former governor and requested the government to constitute a judicial commission to go into the whole gamut of bribery and match-fixing.

Earlier, the cricket establishment, which has its own code of conduct and powers to punish, fine and ban the players, went ahead with its committee inquiry. The latter had but to suspend its work after the judicial process was launched. The legislators' panels of Senate and National Assembly also got active but it appears after some time they fell into a slumber and forgot their work of examining the witnesses.

It is not yet known how many more persons are to be interrogated by the Qayyum Commission? What is its own formulated agenda? How long the whole process will take if some of the cricketers or former captains, who are outside the country, are to appear before the Judge who has gone abroad on leave. As of now it seems the investigations can only resume sometime next month.

Australia opened its own inquiry after news leaked out of bribes taken by Shane Warne and Mark Waugh from an Indian bookie for providing him information about weather and pitch behaviour of a Singer quadrangular match in Sri Lanka (1994). The players were fined and the Aussie board closed the case for good. It insisted, even before an ICC mid-term gathering at Christchurch, New Zealand, that there cannot be a second punishment.

India had appointed Justice Chandrachud to take notice of former all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar's accusations against some cricketers. The conclusions of the judge were a well-kept secret in India as Raj Singh Dungarpur, President of the Indian Board, thought that if the report was made public it would considerably damage the cricket of the country.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) at its January meeting had unanimously agreed to arm the ICC with wide powers to deal with match-fixing, briber and other matters such as drug-taking. Later, a nine-member commission with Lord Griffiths of England as chairman was set up. According to the Christchurch agreement the accused players will be subject to a uniform penalty code of the ICC.

The Pakistan exercise, is no doubt a genuine attempt at rooting out corruption from the game, and Justice Qayyum has done a tremendous job, which should be appreciated. Its conclusions are eagerly being awaited by the lovers of the game that once signified sportsmanship and fair play.

Source :: The Dawn(www.dawn.com)