Pakistanis delay release of judicial report to ICC

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) might have been delaying the release of their long-awaited judicial report into match-fixing and betting allegations, according to highly placed sources close to the ICC. According to information made available to this correspodent, the Australian Cricket Board and the BCCI have already submitted their findings to the ICC which have been okayed by the international body. However the PCB is said to have asked for some more time and may not submit the report until ICC's annual meeting in June. But in the meantime the careers of some of their accused players may be wound down.

Lahore High Court (LHC) judge Mian Malik Mohammed Qayyum questioned some 75 witnesses, including the then Australian captain Mark Taylor and batsman Mark Waugh during a private hearing in Lahore during Australia's tour in 1998. Last year, court registrar Salam Abdus Khawar also travelled to Melbourne to question Waugh and Shane Warne after it was revealed they had taken money from illegal bookmakers for providing certain routine information. Qayyum filed his report halfway through last year to the Government of Nawaz Shariff. The Shariff Government was overthrown, a peaceful military coup took charge and the report remains in the new Government?s hands.

During the recent ICC meeting in Singapore, the PCB chairman is believed to have been asked to submit the findings. However, they would do so only in London in June.

Sources in Pakistan have confirmed that former captain Wasim Akram didn't step down on his own citing illness as the reason (he has been a high diabetic patient) but was pressured to stand down from the captaincy because of the match-fixing allegations.

It is believed that Qayyum found strong evidence of involvement in match-fixing by some leading players and has recommended that those players not be picked for Pakistan until the matter is settled. The PCB is likely to have been waiting for their star cricketers to retire. The main accused Salim Malik has not played Test cricket for Pakistan for more than a year. His career seems now to be finished. Leading batsman Ijaz Ahmed too is not among the runs and may retire any day. The PCB chairman Tauqir Zia, when contacted at his Mangala residence, was not available for comments.