Miandad autobiography resurrects match-fixing scandal

Ahead of the one-day NatWest Challenge series against England, Pakistan's coach Javed Miandad has resurrected the spectre of match-fixing, insinuating in his recently released biography that a game against England, just before the 1999 World Cup, may have been fixed.

In the "Coaching Pakistan" chapter of Cutting Edge, Miandad recollects being "livid" at Pakistan, chasing 207 for a win, being skittled out for only 144. "It was a pathetic performance in cricketing terms, which was bad enough, but with all the talk of betting syndicates ... and with match-fixing allegations swirling ... I was also concerned that our performance may have had little to do with cricket."

Pakistan had already lost two overs due to their slow over-rate, and apart from an unbeaten 47 from Salim Malik - who himself was implicated in the match-fixing controversy - few contributions emerged from a strong batting line-up. Mark Ealham took 4 for 30 in 10 overs of medium-pace, earning him the Man-of-the-Match award.

"During the dinner interval ... I received some telephone calls from people who said they were certain my team would not overhaul England's total and would end up collapsing for a low score," writes Miandad. "I called the boys in for an urgent meeting and confronted them ... I made them swear on the Holy Quran. They said they knew nothing."

He continues: "As the wickets began to fall, I still kept giving explicit technical instructions to each of the batsmen before he was due to go in, but no-one followed any of the instructions I had given. They played like undisciplined amateurs, getting out to irresponsible shots."

Miandad added that after that debacle, his lecture about trust and honesty achieved his aim of getting the team focussed on the cricket, enabling Pakistan to "blast away" India in the final.