Exclusive: Saeed says PCB has decided to adopt the recommendations of the Qayyum report

The report recommendations:

The long awaited report of justice Malik Muhammad Qayyum on Pakistan's match fixing and bribery enquiry was released this afternoon.

Those who have suggested recently that Pakistan may not make public the report in its entirety will be surprised to learn that it does indeed appear to have come out in complete form. As this report is on Pakistan and not the involvement of other countries in cricket's biggest scandal, one has to see how it portrays Pakistan now.

It would appear that Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had already anticipated some of the recommendations which might emerge from Qayyum's report and had appointed Moin Khan, whose name is not on the list of fined players, Captain for current the tour to the West Indies. The report was completed last November and until that time Wasim Akram, who is on the list of fined players, was captain of the side.

Yawar Saeed, the director of cricket at the PCB, speaking exclusively to CricInfo said this evening: "This is the first time that a detailed report such as this has been compiled. Pakistan has taken the lead by conducting an in-depth inquiry. We have made the entire report public. It is something that we did not have to do.

I hope others will take a leaf out of Pakistan's book and do the same with their enquiries."

Yawar Saeed went on to say: "Although it's only recommendations that have been made by Justice Qayyum, the board has decided to implement these. In fact, I can say that as of 2100 hours Pakistan time today (Wednesday) these fines have been imposed on the players.

Yawar added: "Although there is no clear evidence of bribery and match-fixing, these players made statements and counter statements and created doubts. Obviously this raised the questions regarding validity of statements and their non-cooperation was not appreciated."

Arif Abbassi who was the Chief Executive of the PCB at the time when the bribery and match fixing matter arose in 1994 was also contacted this evening (Wednesday) by CricInfo and he was very forthright in his comments. "One has to look at South Africa and Australia instead of Pakistan in this entire saga. I had instigated an investigation by Justice Fakhruddin Ebrahim in 1995 and he had cleared Salim Malik but cast doubts on the testimony of Shane Warne and Mark Waugh. The Australian Cricket board did nothing about it at the time but tried to hush it all up. David Richards, the ICC Chief Executive, must take the blame for not following up this matter. It should have been made public."

Abbassi then made a very strong comment: "What worries us after the incompetence of Richards in dealing with such an important issue of Australia's involvement in the scandal is that he will now team up with another Australian, Malcolm Gray, who takes over as ICC Chairman shortly. Should the two most senior official of ICC be from one country after hiding the truth?"

"South Africa have also been riddled with corruption," he added. "Why is it that Ali Bacher did nothing when Bob Woolmer mentioned this grave problem to him?"

These two teams have been harbouring criminals. They should investigate that instead of making Pakistan look like the culprits. It took time but at least the names of the players involved in the scandal from South Africa did come out."

Finally Abbassi was critical of the PCB saying: "Rashid Latif and Aamer Sohail did the honourable thing. The PCB should not have removed Latif from the captaincy and the team. They told the truth and it was their duty to do so if they suspected any wrong doing."

Rashid Latif, the Pakistan Test player who was the first person to bring the match-fixing issue to the notice of the authorities said from Karachi today: "I am glad it is all in the open now with the Judge's report. But I am concerned about the statement that Salim Malik made to the News of the World in London. Malik has said there are five Pakistan players on his payroll and an ICC official from Pakistan. It is important that he should be made to give these names or else this business will just go on."

Latif added: "I feel for Ata-ur-Rehman who first told the truth to the judge and then had to change his story under threat."

Latif has been praised by Justice Qayyum for his honesty in bringing this matter into the open but was criticised for editing out the part which contained the names of his friends Saeed Anwar and Basit Ali from the tapes that he gave to the enquiry. Later on being told he submitted the original tapes in full.