Judge to question Pakistan team (7 April 1999)

7 April 1999

Judge to question Pakistan team

Mihir Bose

The entire Pakistan team, who face England in the opening match of the Sharjah tournament today, are to be questioned about bribery and match-fixing allegations when they return home next week.

Justice Malik Mohammed Quayyum, the judge who has been investigating allegations of corruption, said yesterday: "I intend to question all the players in Sharjah and I need a couple of days for this. After that I will need two or three more days to write my report. The report is already in my head but it needs to be put down on paper."

The news emerged as three of the principal players in the investigation - Wasim Akram, Salim Malik and Mushtaq Ahmed - were named in Pakistan's 15-man World Cup squad announced yesterday, with Wasim as captain.

If Justice Quayyum is able to keep to his timetable then it will be the first time that a thorough going judicial report has been published on the bribery allegations which have haunted the game since they were levelled against Malik, the then Pakistan captain, in the winter of 1994-5 by Australians Shane Warne, Tim May and Mark Waugh.

Justice Quayyum made it clear that he hoped to have the report ready before the World Cup, which will send a shiver of apprehension through Pakistan cricket, where the hope has been that nothing will emerge until after the competition.

During the investigation in front of Justice Quayyum, serious allegations have been made, which all three players deny. Asked what would happen to their World Cup prospects if his report was critical of these three, Justice Quayyum said: "That is for the cricket authorities to decide. They select the team. But I can tell you that if I find any of the cricketers guilty then I will come down very hard on them."

However, whether the judge will be able to keep to his timetable is open to question. Justice Quayyum had originally planned to submit his report just before Christmas but was derailed by the revelation from Australia that Warne and Mark Waugh had been involved with an Indian bookmaker.

This led to the Pakistanis holding a hearing in Melbourne and since then Justice Quayyum has been trying to re-examine the Pakistani cricketers.

But he has failed because of illness - the judge, who is in his fifties, has a prostate problem - and also because he is presiding over the government's case against former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Pakistan World Cup squad: Wasim Akram (capt), Saeed Anwar, Shahid Afridi, Wajahatullah Wasti, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Ijaz Ahmad, Salim Malik, Yousuf Youhana, Moin Khan, Saqlain Mushtaq, Mushtaq Ahmed, Shoaib Akhtar, Waqar Younis, Azhar Mahmood, Abdur Razzak.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)