Pakistan's worst kept public secret

BEHIND THE NEWS

Whiff of matchfixing back in Pak cricket

When the Pakistan Cricket Board cracked down on its topplayers - banning them, putting them on probation and levying fines -it was quite clear that something was not quite right in Panickistan.Many reckoned that these stiff penalties were actually brushingelephants and camels under the carpet. That the whole exercise wasnothing but a massive cover up. On Monday, a parliamentary panelexpectedly dropped a bombshell. By making the stunning disclosure thatsome Pakistani cricketers were involved in match-fixing during therecent tour of Australia and not naming the players involved, thespectre of match fixing has returned to cricket. It is clear that thegame has once again been revisited by the ghosts of the past. The darkdays when Cronjegate rocked world cricket are back.
Sadly the Pakistan cricket establishment has buried its head in sandfor too long. By trying to air brush the latest match fixing scandal,it has not exactly helped its own reputation. Pakistan's tour ofAustralia was littered with bizarre events, none bigger than thefamous Mike Hussey/Peter Siddle engineered great escape in Sydney.Umar Gul and Mohd Asif squabling publicly, Umar Akmal using the threatof a stiff back if his elder brother Kamran Akmal was axed from theside, or top batters refusing to play in a side game in New Zealandwhen greeted by a green top are some of the instances of an unruly andrebellious pakistan side. Or better still Shahid Afridi trying to chewa cricket ball will remain an abiding memory in the minds of Pakistancricket lovers.
Pakistan cricket like its society is feudal. Eleven disparateindividuals have often stepped on to the cricket field as Pakistan. Itwas only during Mushtaq Mohommed's captaincy that these stellarindividuals began to resemble a fighting unit and not a rag, tagbobtail outfit. Imran Khan was however, the man who through the sheerforce of his own persona managed to bring these individuals to heeland turn them into a cricket team. Think of the Pakistan side of thetime - Majid Khan, Sadiq Mohommed, Asif Iqbal, Zaheer Abbas, JavedMiandad, Sarfaraz Nawaz, Wasim Bari, Wasim Raja, Imran Khan - largerthan life cricketers on the county circuit, each a name to reckonwith. Now it was well known that Imran and Miandad never spoke to oneanother just as Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis never did. But despitethese differences of opinion, they played excellent cricket.
This time round, the whiff of match fixing returned when Younis Khandropped a sitter in the Champions Trophy semi final. Then Pakistanlost matches to Sri Lanka, from positions of strength. And then theinfamous Sydney Test match happened where Hussey and Siddle did aHoudini. One the greatest banes of Pakistan cricket has been the factthat just about everyone in the side harbours aspirations to lead theside. At any given point in time, a Pakistan team has at least half adozen skippers floating around. Many a time, all eleven players areseen waving their hands around on the field trying to command theside. Only Mushtaq to some extent and Imran completely commandedrespect from their players.
Sometime in 2004-5, Inzamam ul Haq was made captain of Pakistan.Before him, Moin Khan, Rashid Latif, Aamer Sohail, Saeed Anwar,Rameez Raja, Saleem Malik and Waqar Younis led Pakistan in quicksuccession. Only Imran, Javed Miandad, Inzamam and Wasim Akram havecaptained Pakistan in 25 Tests or more in the last 40 years. Thattells you something about the absence of stability from the Pakistanside. It is a malaise which mirrors the travails that afflict the PCB.Unlike the BCCI which is registered as a charitable organisation andis more or less autonomous brooking no interference from thegovernment. The PCB on the other hand is dominated completely by thefeudal political system that prevails in every walk of life inPakistan. The ruling establishment in Pakistan has used a revolvingdoor policy to keep the PCB under the cosh.
On Monday, a three-member sub-committee of the Senate Committee onsports made the revelation after a meeting with Pakistan Cricket Boardofficials, including its chairman Ejaz Butt, at Gaddafi Stadium. "Thesub-committee was briefed on the tour with documents, and there areverbal, video and solid proofs that one or more players were involvedin match-fixing," said Haroon Akhtar, a member of the sub-committee.Recently PCB Chairman Ejaz Butt had denied about the fixing inAustralia, where Pakistan lost all the matches, after admitting thesame in a press conference. Changing his stand, after it triggered a afurore, Butt had said that he referred to old players and not thecurrent ones.
It is a public 'secret' in Pakistan that the Pak tour to Aussie landreeked from its pores of an odd and familiar garlic like odour. Theodour returned when Pakistan's top daily - News - broke the story thata player was being investigated. That is when the dominos began tofall. And this purge has only begun.