Pakistan cricket again at the crossroads

Pakistan cricket, like so many times in the past, is again at the crossroads. Enormous pressure is being exerted by vested interests on the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to make the Justice Abdul Qayyum report public and implement its recommendations.

The two-day ICC summit ended rather inconclusively. The only concrete outcome of the meeting, seems to be the demand made on the PCB to hand over the report to the ICC. Jagmohan Dalmiya, the ICC chairman, has gone overboard by threatening Pakistan suspension from international cricket in case it does not abide by the ICC ruling.

I firmly support the efforts of the well-wishers of the game, who want to root out the evil, which has shaken the very basis of this beautiful game. I am a firm believer that the only way to eradicate cricket from these ills is to bring to book all theose cricketers who have been involved in these nefarious activities.

Guilty players are reported to have been identified and duly penalized for their offences. So one would say where is the problem? Well, the problem lies in the circles who are demanding the report to be published.

It seems that demands are being made not to clear the game of the corrupt cricketers but merely to weaken the Pakistan team.

Just look at the background of these demands. The Indian and the Australian cricket boards have submitted findings of their inquiries to the ICC and according to these inquiries, none of the players have been found guilty of match-fixing. No other inquiry, despite so much noise and clamour in public, is currently in progress anywhere in the world.

Even in South Africa, the tribunal is taking too long to start its proceedings. The wrath is likely to fall on just Pakistan cricketers. No doubt some of the leading lights of the national outfit are not clean. In fact some of them have their hands full and they need to be duly punished for playing with the honour of the country but then the question arises, have only cricketers from the sub-continent in general and from Pakistan in particular indulged in these immoral activities? The whole business of match-fixing can not spread the way it has until players from other countries have become part of it. The PCB, on its part, should make it clear to the ICC that the evil is not just restricted to Pakistan cricketers. Unless it gets firm commitment from the ICC that all the players, no matter which country they represent will be punished for their off-the-field crimes, it should not make public the findings of the report.

While it has been announced that the report of Justice Qayyum on betting and match-fixing is to be made public within the next few days, 'Outlook' magazine of India has already published, what it claims to be, extracts from the said report.

Justice Qayyum is a sitting judge of the Lahore High Court but his report can in no way be considered an LHC judgement. The President in his capacity as the Patron of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), has the prerogative of accepting or rejecting some or all of the recommendations.

Many viewers across Pakistan are disgusted with the advertisement policy of the PTV. During one dayers, so many ads are shown between the overs that they take up one to two deliveries of an over. Not only viewers' continuity is obstructed, but also our interest is dimmed.

A last resort many viewers turn to foreign channels. I hope that the PTV will keep in mind the viewers interest in the coverage.