LAHORE: Former captain Salim Malik on Tuesday lashed out at ex-Pakistan skipper Rashid Latif for threatening his way into the national team during his playing days and also blasted the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for getting his (Malik’s) entry into the Gaddafi Stadium stalled as he arrived to submit a reply to an inquiry against him.

Salim waited for 12 minutes to get into the Gaddafi Stadium but then got very aggressive, perhaps for the first time since he has been facing the match-fixing allegations, despite having been cleared by the court of law in 2008.

“I have played 100 Test matches for Pakistan but I waited at the main gate of the Gaddafi Stadium to get in to submit my reply for another inquiry against me. It showed how biased the PCB’s management is against me as it is reluctant to give me an access into the stadium,” Salim said.

“Since Monday it has been in the electronic media that I will submit my second reply to the PCB on Tuesday, but the staff at the main gate has no information as it took 12 minutes to get me in after completing the process,” he complained.

When asked that now former well known cricketers like Inzamam-ul-Haq, Rashid Latif, Basit Ali and Aaqib Javed have also given their statements in his support that he (Salim) has faced enough punishment and he should be given a chance to return to the fold, Salim retorted aggressively: ”Only Inzamam and Saqlain Mushtaq supported me from the heart but others are not saying with that kind of spirit.”

He then resorted to an onslaught against Rashid.

“In a recent development Ata-ur-Rehman has also spoken about Rashid’s character as he told people that Rashid has a track record of making cassettes of others and threatening them,” said Salim.

“Rashid convinced Ata to write an affidavit against Wasim Akram and then he also prepared a cassette of Ata’s statement in which he said some harsh words against the judicial commission head retired Justice Malik Qayyum and then presented it to the commission.”

Salim said that Rashid had the habit of threatening all the cricketers because of his affiliation with Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and called the party’s foun­der Altaf Hussain as his father.

“Why is Rashid not calling Altaf Hussain his father anymore?” he asked. “I have not spoken for 20 years on this [topic] but enough is enough. My children have grown up and I need to remove their doubts about my character,” said Salim.

While the judicial commission banned Salim for life in 2000, he was later cleared in the court. How­ever, he isn’t cleared in the books of the PCB, which has star­ted another case against him from 2013, based on the ICC transcripts allegedly made in 2000 in London.

Salim alleged that all the conspiracy against the Pakistan team was master-minded by Rashid to secure captaincy.

“Former PCB chairman Khalid Mahmood and now Ata have challenged Rashid to give answers to their questions but he is reluctant to face them,” he said. “Javed Mia­n­dad brought Rashid in cricket but Rashid stabbed him [Miandad] in the back several times. The real corrupt person was Rashid, who just for captaincy sacrificed the entire Pakistan team.”

Salim asked Prime Minister Imran Khan, his former skipper, and Supreme Court to take notice of the PCB’s affairs.

“Imran Khan should give some attention to PCB’s affairs as it is cricket which played a great role in making him who he is today. The people who are handling the affairs of the PCB have no knowledge about cricket whatsoever,” he alleged.

About his reply, Salim said he had made some changes in his new reply and if the PCB would not clear him from the allegation he had several options including moving High Court against the PCB to get justice.

He said he had not been shown any cassettes as evidence in the ICC transcript case. “They are handing over me just a write-up of allegations without any evidence. If the ICC sent any letter to the PCB in this case it [ICC] should have also written to me.”

Salim said he had confessed to the charges against him in 2014 but said that it was on the insistence of PCB Chief Operating Officer Subhan Ahmed and its legal adviser Taffazul Rizvi. “They told me that is was a formality which would get me cleared from the ICC,” he said. “But then they made my confession public.”

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2020