Pakistan's elite preparing to take the stand (8 October 1998)

8 October 1998

Pakistan's elite preparing to take the stand

By Peter Deeley in Lahore

PAKISTAN cricket will be as much on trial today in the High Court here as the household names who have been called to give evidence in the judicial inquiry into allegations of match-fixing and betting.

Such players as Wasim Akram, Salim Malik, Pakistan Test captain Aamir Sohail and past fast bowler Ata-ur-Rehman are to give evidence on oath before Judge Malik Mohammad Qayyum as the hearings reach a climax.

Wasim and Salim are two of the accused in the affair, along with Ijaz Ahmed, and Sohail is a witness to events.

Rehman faces the possibility of going to jail after previously refuting statements he had earlier made to a Pakistan Cricket Board committee about approaches to him by Wasim to bowl badly in a one-day game in New Zealand.

Judge Qayyum sent Rehman away to think matters over and warned him that he could be arrested on charges of perjury.

But in the view of Australian captain Mark Taylor, allegations of match-fixing will always be very difficult to prove.

Taylor, who gave evidence along with Mark Waugh two days ago about alleged approaches to members of the 1994 Australian party to throw games in Pakistan, said the issue was so difficult it needed to be handled by a worldwide governing body like the International Cricket Council.

"It all involves private meetings in people's hotel rooms. It involves telephone calls. It is your word against mine and his word against another guy's. It is going to be hard. I have been dragged into this affair and I don't particularly like it."

Malik's lawyers are maintaining they have evidence to clear him of the allegations and the Pakistan authorities are making much of the fact that it took four months for the Australians to tell them what happened - but immediately alerted David Richards, chief executive of ICC.

Taylor, captain on the 1994 tour, said that when the players informed him he passed the information on to Colin Eagar, then team manager. "I felt it had to go through the right channels. It wasn't up to me to go on some sort of witch-hunt to find out the truth. That was for the ACB."

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