Ijaz Butt made Pakistan's case more complicated

Pakistan cricket team has returned home after the controversial tour of England with some bitter memories of being under the spot-light for wrong reasons.
The tour was marred by off-field controversies, which in the end took its toll when Pakistan cricket board’s (PCB’s) chairman Ijaz Butt stated that the England players were involved in match-fixing and have received heavy sums of bribe to lose the third One-day International.
Mr. Butt should have remembered the fact that it was English and Wales cricket board which came up to help Pakistan revive its cricket after the country was shunned for cricket tours after the attack on Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.
ECB played a very positive role in helping Pakistan to resume its cricket activities by allowing them to use their country for their home series against the Australians. If it had not been England’s proposal, then Pakistan would have never been able to play the Kangaroos but the chairman of the PCB didn’t even think for a minute about the courtesy that was shown by the England’s officials before uttering his lowly words.
England cricket team and board officials have been enraged by the comments of Ijaz butt and have demanded legal apology for dragging the English players into the matter of match-fixing without any proof.
ECB have filed an official case against the chairman of Pakistan cricket board for defamation. The legal notice have been received by the Pakistan Cricket Board, which clearly indicates that England will be very much willing to withdraw the case against their counterparts, only if the chairman of PCB comes up and apologized for the wrong blames that he laid against the English team.
The Pakistan cricket board has instantly replied against the legal notice by hiring lawyers today, as the relationship between the two cricket boards is getting even bitter. The quick move by the PCB looks to be quite cautious as Ijaz Butt would be cursing the time when he made negative remarks against those who put forward a helping hand.
From inside, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board knows that he might lose the only friendly-board by his stupidity and that can leave Pakistan isolated in the cricket world.
Pakistan cricket board (PCB) revealed that they have ordered the lawyers to respond to the legal notice that they have received. It is not only the ECB who is looking to seek apology but the Professional Cricketers Association (PCA) also wants the PCB’s chairman to take his words back.
ECB managing director Hugh Morris is still willing to withdraw from the case, only if Ijaz Butt responds with admission of guilt that whatever he said in the heat of moment was all wrong and that English players were not involved in any immoral activity.
He condemned the charges saying it has been very disturbing for English players to absorb such false claims which are serious attack on their loyalty. ECB’s managing director further said that the allegations are of serious nature and have raised serious doubts about the integrity of the game. What really surprises people is the fact that when the spot-fixing scandal erupted to the surface, Ijaz Butt was seen nowhere to be seen, and it was Pakistan’s high commissioner Wajid Shams ul Hasan and manager Yawer Saeed who were defending the charges against the Pakistan cricket team.
What comes to the mind of public is that the government of Pakistan knew that Ijaz butt doesn’t know how to handle the pressure of media that’s why he would have been ordered by the higher authorities of Pakistan to go underground until the matter was fully resolved.
But it was the bad luck of Pakistan that from somewhere Mr. Butt came in front of the media after almost twenty days of the spot-fixing scandal and did the non-sense stuff which was pretty much expected from him.

ICC and IPL also responsible for fixing

By Nabeel Hashmi

All the mud is slinged upon the Pakistan team and management on the spot-fixing scam and rightly so for their alleged involvement in the crime but what about the role of International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) anti-corruption unit (ACSU)?

The match-fixing, spot-fixing whatever you want to call it, is not anything new for the cricket’s supreme cricket body so how can it be possible that the officials of anti-corruption unit were unaware of these mysterious activities?

“The players should be banned for life” is the roar of the whole world, the scream to prohibit the Pakistani players is correct but why only they? The dubious role of the members of Icc’s anti-corruption unit should also be questioned that how on earth the highest paid personnel for stopping corruption in the game didn’t have a clue and a reporter of a newspaper planned a successful sting operation against the bookie and the players which should have been done by the ICC.The officials of ACSU should also be interogated and they should be suspend on their pathetic performance. It is a clear case of anti-corruption unit’s failure to detect and caught the bookies that are using players for their immoral purposes.

The players who are found guilty should be handed out an exemplary punishment only if they, just like Hansie Cronje, Salim Malik and Azharuddin who were banned for life to send out a resounding message to all those people who wants to weaken the ethical roots of the gentlemen’s game.

There have been strong cases of bookies approaching players in the past and in present now. Former greats have been raising their concern of alleged match and spot fixing in the game and the need to wipe it out for the betterment of cricket but still International cricket governing body have not caught even a single bookie on their own in the recent past.

It isn’t the case that the corruption in cricket is only prevailing particularly in Pakistan, the evils and demon can easily be found in other nations of cricket but only if the double standards of judging can be rectified. In the past also South African Herschelle Gibbs, West Indian Marlon Samuels, Indian Ajay Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar notably have been punished which clearly tells the sorry tale of  players belonging to major teams who have been found guilty of being corrupt.     

The introducion of T20 cricket has paved way for betting and most notably the Indian Premier League (IPL) which comes under ICC's wing. The grand finale of the IPL season three was the most controversial and doubt full match of all for officials who monitor all the games with an eagle eye to pounce on to any hint of the match being fixed. First Sachin Tendulkar have looked to deliberately scoop a simple catch which was held at mid-off boundary. Furthermore, Kieron Pollard one of the biggest hitters in the game was sent at number eight by Mumbai Indians with the final already gifted to Chennai Super Kings and only three overs remaining further cleared the air that the game was more than doubtful to be a fixed match.


Not only this JP Duminy was also sent late down the order at number seven. If that was not all to quite clearly to prove what game was going on in the match the astounding decision to promote Harbajhan Singh to number four and Ambathi Rayudu to sixth spot ahead of the international superstars who were brought in for millions of dollars turned the heads of millions of viewers0 making them believe that the main players are outside the ground not within the rope.
Understandably superstars are bought in to win the games not to be used as tail-enders. But still the inquiry was never setup for keeping a check on irregular activites and decisions in IPL.It looks ICC is fully supporting BCCI in fixing matches. The reason for putting the blame on ICC is that they never bothered to look into the suspicious matters of IPL. The first edition was won by Rajhastan Royals who were the underdogs, second edition was won by Deccan Chargers a team who finished at the bottom in the first season and the third was gifted to Chennai super Kings by the best team of the competetion Mumbai Indians. It is very simple loose when the rate is high on winning as everybody puts in their money for that team to win and win when the rate is low as everybody bet on your loss,this is all what fixing requires.

All the suspicious matches in three seasons of IPL should be reviewed and the suspects should not only punished be punished, their franchises should also be scrached because players do what their owners orders. Shahrukh Khan just like many others have invested millions and millions on Kolkata nightriders but he hardly seems to be worried on his team's poor showing in all three seasons. The reason behind it is simple, his franchise is earning heavily on loosing more than tripple they can earn y winning through betting and match fixing.

The suspicion raised by the IPL3 final and all the other suspicious events tandem with the 'fixing' saga prompted to raise the concern on crystal clear inquiring of all the matches which looks doubtful, its high time that ICC should start looking at all the matters with a same eye without being biased against any cricket board -- no matter how wealthiest and strong board of the globe it is, may it be Board of Control for cricket in India (BCCI), Pakistan cricket board (PCB), Australian cricket board (ACB), English and Wales cricket Board (ECB) etc.