LAHORE: Former Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Khalid Mahmood has urged the PCB not only to make public the names of those bookies who roped the Pakistani players in corrupt practices but to also send their cases to the FIA with immediate effect.

In an exclusive talk with Dawn, Khalid said he has no regrets as then chairman PCB for allowing top players like Wasim Akram, Ijaz Ahmed, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mushtaq Ahmed and others in 1997-98 to continue playing after chief executive Majid Khan had sidelined them over allegations of match-fixing.

When asked that while a good number of cricketers have been banned in match or spot fixing cases, the PCB could not yet disclose the names of the bookies involved in them, Khalid said: “Looks it takes two to quarrel, so when any player fixes a match he is not alone, obviously some match fixer is there. But while a lot of players have been punished during the last two decades, those bookies who set them up and offered hefty bribes to the players are not in the picture.”

“These cases must be handed over to FIA to take everyone responsible to the task,” Khalid said.“There is a need to work at the root causes to grab such bookies and corrupt people through FIA.

“I can’t say that big guns are behind the bookies and the PCB is feeling fear of nabbing such bookies. But it is the task of the proper forum to reach such persons through proper investigation.”Former chairman also differed with the point of the PCB lawyer Taffazul Rizvi that the PCB had no jurisdiction to disclose or punish those elements.

“The gambling is illegal in Pakistan and the laws against it are existing, so the PCB must hand over such persons’ name to the FIA to deal with such elements strictly to root out the evil,” he observed.

Asked if he had any regrets for allowing Wasim, Ijaz, Inzamam and some other players to keep on playing for Pakistan after they were sidelined by then Chief Executive PCB Majid Khan as an inquiry headed by retired Justice Ijaz Yousuf was in progress against them in a gambling case, Khalid said: “No. I have no regrets for my that decision because there were no strong evidences against the cricketers who were sidelined simply on doubts.

“First of all I have not seen any inquiry report of Justice Ijaz Yousuf, who was an honourable member of the then PCB council. Moreover, how I could sidelined these star players just on doubts when nothing concrete was available against them?” he asked. “It was not fair that three PCB council members made an inquiry against the star players and sidelined them.

“Majid Khan as chief executive had also appointed a far junior player Rashid Latif as captain of Pakistan then, which I overruled and replaced Rashid with Aamir Sohail. My entry in the PCB [as chairman] no doubt dashed all the planning of Majid and Rashid,” he recalled.

“What alternate was available of those stars players who had been serving the country for the last many years.

Khalid, however, said he was extremely disappointed by the performances of Pakistan’s many superstars in the World Cup 1999, in which Pakistani players did not play a fair game against India and Bangladesh.

“That was a strong team and no one was expecting the defeat at the hands of Bangladesh and I was ashamed of the team’s performance and clearly stated that the team did not play a fair game but it does not mean some spot-fixing or gambling was involved, as it was the job of the proper forum to decide that,” he said. “And the government of Pakistan did appoint judicial commission of Justice Qayyum and Justice Bhandari to look into the suspect games which were the proper forum to investigate the matters.

“If anyone can recall I was also sacked as PCB chairman despite the fact Pakistan played the final in 1999 World Cup, which was not a mean achievement then,” he added.

The ex-PCB chief it was awesome that positive values in the society were vanishing away.

Moreover, he said the media had wrongly reported him that he had said that Ata-ur-Rehman twisted his statement against Wasim Akram.

“I am not saying that from myself I was just quoting the findings of the Justice Qayyum commission,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2020