Why can’t the PCB appoint an independent commission to investigate and publish their findings?
LAHORE: Immediately after the “spot fixing” scandal came in the media, this newspaper published my letter (September 1) predicting the type of farcical response that was likely to follow. Sadly, not only has the PCB followed, almost step by step, the ridiculous response I had forecast but exceeded my worst expectations. Be that as it may, as an enthusiastic cricket fan, I would like to know if the PCB is at all concerned that our cricketers might be involved in such dirty dealings? I know the chairman of the PCB has been lashing out at the ICC, the tabloids, the English cricketers, et al. But he has said nothing at all about what the PCB itself intends to do about these allegations which look pretty persuasive.
There is no suggestion by the PCB of an impartial, open enquiry or even a secretive internal one. It is no use hiding behind on-going enquiries by Scotland Yard and the ICC which have their own particular briefs. Surely the matter should be of paramount concern to our own cricket authorities. If our cricketers are innocent as claimed by the PCB and our high commissioner to the UK, isn’t it time that they and the cricketers concerned filed defamation and criminal libel charges against the offending British tabloids and demand punitive damages? Trying to implicate other foreign cricketers into this scandal does not absolve us of any guilt. Pakistani cricket lovers are most concerned about their own team. Why can’t the PCB appoint an independent commission to investigate and publish their findings if there is nothing to hide?
Mian Haroun Rashid
Published in The Express Tribune, September 26th, 2010.
