Randall C: Imram says ICC must take stand on bribery (23 Feb 95)

Bribery: ICC must take a stand on the hotch-potch of unfounded allegations

Every time Pakistan do badly it seems rumours start about players being sold out, says IMRAN KHAN (Imran Khan was talking to Charles Randall)

IN my 21 years of first-class cricket as player and captain not once was I approached to influence a match for money. The concept is alien, it`s something I can`t comprehend.

I can`t understand how any player can gamble in international cricket. It is very easy for a cricket professional to know if someone is deliberately not playing well or out of character. It would be obvious. I can tell even if someone is not motivated.

I will say though, that in Pakistan it is quite probable gambling goes on in our domestic cricket. The reason is the first-class set-up, which is dominated by commercial teams such as banks. No-one is interested in that sort of cricket, and because there is no interest the games are not subject to scrutiny. Rumours have been circulating about bribery and I can see that happening. There have been some unusual results and you get the impression that certain matches must be fixed.

The distinction must be made between international and domestic cricket. How can one player win or lose an international match anyway? Unless you see players not performing up to standard, I don`t know how you can tell. If a whole team are involved, everyone watching can see there`s a joke going on.

Salim Malik has been put in a very difficult position

The ICC are going to have to take a firm stand on this, because the whole issue is a hotch-potch of allegations that cannot be proved. Salim Malik, the Pakistan captain, has been put in a very difficult position.

Every time the Pakistan team do badly it seems rumours start about players being sold out. Wine, women or betting are blamed in newspapers, probably because not all writers have technical knowledge of the game and those sort of reasons are easier to understand. This is how rumours start.

There were gambling allegations against Asif Iqbal in 1979 in India and against Javed Miandad in the World Cup sem-final against Australia at Lahore in 1987.

Sarfraz Nawaz made these allegations both times, but nothing came of it. Sarfraz has continued to make allegations. He is not management or involved with the playing side. I assume he wants to get into the press and I think he loves publicity, but no-one in Pakistan takes him seriously these days.

I feel sorry for our prime minister if she has advisers like him. For someone in his position he has done Pakistan cricket a vast amount of harm. Though huge amounts are gambled on cricket in Pakistan and India, very little of what I`ve heard makes any sense. Why have these Australian accusations stayed in the closet for so long? How can anything be proved?

Nothing has been put in writing I`m sure

Nothing has been put in writing I`m sure. It`s one man`s word against another`s. If there is anything going on I hope to god this gets proved. It`s all so damaging for Pakistan cricket.

The closest I`ve become to being involved in bribery was in the Sharjah tournament of 1990-91 when we played Australia in the final. There was a rumour that four of our players had been approached, but these were only rumours and not especially reliable ones.

I decided to call the players together and we agreed to back $20,000 on ourselves at even money, the prize money we had won at that stage. Incidentally, we did win the tournament.

If I had found anyone playing below par and then discovered that they had been bribed, I would have made it my purpose in life to make sure they they never played for Pakistan again.

If there is no proof then there should be no allegations. The ICC must not treat this issue like ball-tampering. They are still not doing their job because there is still so much ambiguity. Unless the character of the ball has changed, ball-tampering has not taken place. It is then purely up to the umpires to decide on the rights and wrongs.

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