The mystery behind Pakistan team’s wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider managing to get his hands on his passport has still failed to be unravelled. Where everyone is focusing on what the deserter-wicketkeeper has to say, no one is actually asking the right questions and among them the biggest and the most important question is: why did the manager give the player his passport in the first place? Initially, the team management refused to give any statements regarding the actions of the fearful-for-his-life wicketkeeper and a simple statement was given acknowledging the fact that the player had gone missing.
Now the team manager Intikhab Alam has come out defending the team management of their negligence and denying the reports that the team management had any prior knowledge of Zulqarnain’s plan to leave Dubai or the threats that he was receiving.
Intikhab Alam said, “This is irresponsible to say that the management knew of Haider’s plans to flee to London. We only came to know it around noon after we contacted the Dubai police and gave them a copy of his passport.” Alam went on to say, “How can you blame the team management, we had no clue of any threats and his programme, and Haider has himself admitted that he didn’t tell anyone and took his passport on the pretext of getting a mobile sim (card).”
By saying that the team management had no prior information about Zulqarnain’s plans, the team manager Intikhab Alam can’t simply wash his hands off this embarrassing predicament. The management should have the guts to take some responsibility. The passports are supposed to be in the custody of the team manager and giving away the passports on the simple pretext of a sim just doesn’t make any sense.
The team manager should have asked for further information before giving Haider his passport. The blame falls on the shoulders of ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit as well. They are placed with the teams just to keep an eye on the activities of the players and Zulqarnain managed to elude them as well.
The ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit had no information about the whereabouts of the runaway wicketkeeper, nor any details about the threats that he was getting (apparently) from a bookie.
This is a failure of the team management and ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit likewise as both totally failed in stopping the player from taking such a dramatic step.
Intikhab, however, had no hard feelings for Zulqarnain Haider and believes that the player is a clean person and was not involved in anything wrong. ICC’s Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said that the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit has finally met Zulqarnain Haider in England and the ICC is in close contact with the player and the Pakistan Cricket Board. Zulqarnain has told the Anti-Corruption Unit that right now he is not willing to go back to Pakistan as there are threats to his life.
Earlier, the Pakistan team, which is in the UAE playing against South Africa, were taken aback when they discovered about the disappearance of their 24-year-old wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider just moments before the fifth and the final match of a One-Day series in the UAE (which Pakistan lost, ergo losing the series to South Africa 2-3).
The team management then contacted the Dubai police and the police informed them that Zulqarnain Haider had boarded a flight to England. Following this revelation, news broke all over the world that the player deserted the team due to fears for his life as he was constantly being threatened by an unidentified person to lose the final match against South Africa. Or else.
