Pakistan cricketers and officials have reservations about using lie detector tests to curb corruption in the game. Banned former captain Salman Butt even called the idea a “mockery” that could ruin players’ careers. The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the guardian of the rules of cricket, recently floated the idea, saying that lie detectors had the potential to fight corruption in cricket, and stressed that the proposal should be widely debated.
Former Australia captain Steve Waugh, who is a member of the MCC, even took a lie-detector test himself as part of his bid to help root corruption out of cricket. Waugh termed the test a nerve-wracking experience. Butt, who is facing a criminal case in a London court following a minimum five-year ban by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in the spot-fixing scandal during England tour, rejected the idea. Former Test cricketer Basit Ali, who has been vocal against corruption in the past, gave a conditional thumbs-up to the MCC’s proposal.
“If it’s hundred per cent accurate, then only should it be used,” reports quoted Basit as saying. “As far as I know, there are doubts over its accuracy and there’s always a minimal doubt over its results, so the use of lie detectors should be discouraged.” Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) legal adviser Tafazzul Rizvi expressed his doubts over the accuracy of the test, felt the implementation of the plan would be an uphill task. “It’s not hundred per cent accurate,” said Rizvi. “There should be a thorough experimentation of lie detectors before implementing the proposal. However, it still wouldn’t be easy to implement it because it would require amending the laws of ICC’s member countries.
