Playing it late: President demands answers on spot-fixing scandal

Interior Minister says govt might attempt repatriation of players.

ISLAMABAD: The government has asked its High Commission in London to submit a report on the cricket spot-fixing scam and hinted that it would look into ways to secure repatriation of the three convicted Pakistani players.

President Asif Ali Zardari during a meeting on Friday also asked the Pakistan Cricket Board, of which he is patron in chief, to submit a report which should include recommendations on how to avoid a repeat of such incidents.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who briefed Zardari over the scam, told reporters that the government would consider bringing the three players home. Malik had earlier said that he had requested Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK,  Wajid Shamsul Hassan, to provide necessary legal aid to the trio. “The high commissioner in London has been asked to submit a report,” Malik added.

The three players – Muhammad Amir, Salman Butt and Muhammad Asif – were convicted by a London court for their involvement in illegal activities during a Test match in London last year. Their sentences range from six months to 30 months.

Malik told reporters that the conviction was unfortunate. He said the government would form a commission to investigate the matter thoroughly, adding that the players will not be left alone. He also said, despite their guilty verdicts in both the ICC hearings and the recently concluded criminal trial in London, that “we cannot rule out the possibility of any of the convicted players being innocent.”

In Lahore, Butt’s family said it had postponed his sister’s wedding as it struggled to cope with the “big tragedy”.

“Her in-laws understand our grief,” Salman’s father Zulfikar Ali Butt, who runs a farming business, told AFP. “If Salman’s involvement is proved and evidence is provided that he took money, I tell the nation that my son Salman and I are ready to be hanged publicly,” Zulfikar said.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cricket Board rejected Amir’s claims that they had not educated the talented fast bowler on how to combat corruption in the sport.

The 19-year-old will spend six months in a young offenders’ detention centre, but he sought to excuse his behaviour earlier this week, saying that the PCB did not educate him on corruption.

“The PCB never told me just how serious a offence it was to get into these sort of things. They didn’t educate me enough about anti-corruption laws,” Amir was quoted as saying.

The PCB strongly rejected the paceman’s claims.

“A section of the media has reported a purported statement of Amir in which he has claimed that PCB did not educate him relating to anti-corruption codes that players are to abide on,” read a press release.

“The PCB would like it known for the record that this claim is in total contradiction to the facts,” the PCB added.

(With additional input from AFP)

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th,  2011.