LAHORE – Hamid Shinwari, Chief Executive Officer of the Afghan Cricket Board (ACB) reacted angrily over allegations of match-fixing in his team’s Asian Games win over Pakistan.
Afghanistan beat Pakistan in the Asian Games semi-final in the Chinese city of Guangzhou. He said that I was only a bid to undermine the phenomenal progress made by the Afghan team lately.
“I strongly deny the allegations. Afghan national cricket team’s performance was outstanding throughout the year and it would be an insult to our national team who performed very well not just in the Asian Games but in other tournaments too,
” Shinwar said in a television interview. Earlier in November, Afghanistan stunned a second-string Pakistan in the semi-finals of the Asian Games in Guangzhou to qualify for the final. On the defeat a quarter raised doubts and even formally approached the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to look in the matter. On Saturday, the newly appointed Chief Operating Officer of the PCB, Subhan Ahmed however made it clear that the match was not fixed and the PCB was not holding any inquiry in this regard. Highlighting the recent performance of the Afghan team, Mr. Shinwari added that the team won the ICC Intercontinental Cup, T20 World Cup qualifying and also featured in the World T20 cup which is commendable.
“The victory in the Asian games should not be considered as a fluke, in the whole 2010 the Afghan team improved gradually”, said Shinwari “Our national team is a raising cricketing star and has the capacity to defeat any team specifically in T-20 and other formats on its day”, Shinwari added. Earlier, responding to the match fixing calls Afghanistan’s coach Rashid Latif stressed that Afghanistan was capable of beating Pakistan again on any venue any given day.
