LAHORE – Former Test captain Javed Miandad has urged the banned trio of Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir to expose the people involved in illegal betting and corruption in international cricket. Miandad, who is the director-general cricket in the Pakistan Cricket Board, said he felt saddened by the damage done to the image of Pakistan cricket.
“I am hurt by the damage caused to our cricket and our image by the sanctions imposed on Salman, Asif and Amir, but it is not possible they were working alone with Mazhar Majeed,” Miandad said. “I am convinced that there is an entire mafia involved in spreading the menace of spot-fixing in our sport,” Miandad said. “I don’t believe that only three players can do spot-fixing. I suspect that a lot of other people are involved in this racket,” he added.
Miandad urged the three players to cooperate with the authorities in exposing the mafia. “These three should expose this mafia and help the PCB as Pakistan cricket has got a bad name because of them.” The former national coach said that he would soon meet PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt to discuss some proposals that would ensure such incidents don’t take place in the future.
Miandad also noted that in order to prevent spot-fixing, the authorities needed to carry out a widespread operation and expose all the players who are corrupt. Butt was last week banned for 10 years by the anti-corruption tribunal on charges of spot-fixing, while pacer Mohammad Asif was banned for seven years and Mohammad Amir for five years by the tribunal.
Miandad had no doubt that the three players had let Pakistan cricket and the PCB down by not admitting their guilt early on when they were accused of spot-fixing by ‘News of the World.’ “These players should have told PCB the entire truth instead of continuing to insist they were innocent,” he said.
