Miandad calls for life bans (16 February 1999)

16 February 1999

Miandad calls for life bans

By Peter Deeley in Calcutta

JAVED MIANDAD, the Pakistan coach, has called for "the whole team to be sacrificed if necessary" to salvage the country and the game in the on-going bribery and match-fixing inquiry.

His evidence, given in secrecy to the judicial commission, has been published here on the eve of a Test match against India. Miandad says he believes there is some truth in the allegations and that guilty players should be banned for life.

When approached yesterday, Miandad said: "I don't want to discuss anything about this. So many things were said a long time ago."

Testimony in camera of other players to Judge Mohammad Qayyum has also been revealed. His findings are unlikely to be released by the Pakistan government before the World Cup.

After practising at the ground here, the players were shown the article in the magazine Outlook under the heading 'Bets, Lies, Deceits'.

Pakistan's tour manager, Shaharyar Khan, dismissed it as "muck-raking and very regrettable timing. The matter is all sub-judice and if the magazine had published this at home I suspect they would have been hauled into court."

Miandad's statement adds that one current player "confided to me that the evil of match-fixing is going on and once he was also involved".

Former captain Aamir Sohail is said to have told the court a current player confessed in the presence of a team-mate that "he wasn't getting runs because he had taken money for fixing the match".

A bookmaker, Saleem Parvez, names two present players as receiving $100,000 from him for fixing a match in Sri Lanka. The two players contacted me directly . . . they asked for a larger amount."

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