With a British court yet to reveal the name of the second person involved in a fixing scandal in a County match, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is hoping that it’s not Danish Kaneria. Pakistan can ill afford another conviction in match fixing with three of its cricketers already serving jail terms in UK for spot fixing. Former Essex cricketer Mervyn Westfield has pleaded guilty to receiving corrupt payments during a Pro40 match. Sources aware of the developments in the PCB said the officials and legal advisors are concerned about the remarks made by Judge Anthony Morris that name of the other party involved in the deal would be made public soon. Sources say PCB officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the Westfield trial ends on February 10 without any involvement of Danish Kaneria in it. During the trial, Westfield, who played with Kaneria for Essex, admitted agreeing to allow 12 runs to come off his opening over in match against Durham in September 2009 in return for a 6,000 pound payment. In the event, only 10 runs were scored off the over. The Essex police had in 2010 questioned Westfield and Kaneria but the Pakistani spinner was not charged due to lack of sufficient evidence. Since October 2010 the PCB has not allowed Kaneria to be considered for national selection as it claimed it was still not satisfied he was completely clear in the spot-fixing case. The sources said the Board officials were keeping their fingers crossed that the Westfield trial ended on February 10 without any involvement of Kaneria in it. “After the spot fixing case involving Salman Butt, Muhammad Aamir and Muhammad Asif it is clear that Pakistan cricket cannot afford any more such scandals,” one source said. PCB Chairman Zaka Ashraf had on Wednesday that while he had sympathy for Kaneria, the board had to follow the rules and regulations of its intergrity committee. ”If the committee has some issues, they must sort it out with Kaneria first. There is nothing personal against him; the day the integrity committee clears him we will consider
him for national selection,” Ashraf said.
