Haider, who fled to London last Monday, following death threats when he refused to fix two matches against South Africa, will name the coach who he claims forced him to stand down from the captaincy of Lahore Eagles for their 50-over match against National Bank of Pakistan on March 28 2009, which ended in one of the most astonishing results ever recorded.
Lahore Eagles scored 122 from 40.3 overs. NBP, who had to win convincingly to improve their net run-rate to qualify for the semi-finals of the Royal Bank of Scotland Cup, replied with 123 for no wicket off 6.1 overs. Salman Butt, the suspended Pakistan captain, scored an unbeaten 92 off 25 balls. Kamran Akmal was the NBP captain, and Wahab Riaz and Mohammed Amir were also in the winning team.
Haider recalled the incident in his uncertain English: “One night before – I was captain for my team – they gave the captaincy to another player and said 'you are not able to do captaincy’.”
And if Haider had remained captain, no doubt he would not have kept bowling Usman Sarwar, who had never played for Lahore before or since — who conceded 78 runs from three overs, mainly to Butt.
Who exactly told Haider to step down? “The coach said to me, if you do not rest, you will not be playing next year for Lahore.” The name of the coach, Haider yesterday told The Sunday Telegraph, is Sajad Akbar.
This new evidence will pile the pressure on the Pakistan Cricket Board after they found no evidence of foul play when they first investigated this match. Pakistan, having been informally threatened by the International Cricket Council with being banned from the next World Cup if they do not put their house in order, have begun to act, banning the leg-spinner Danish Kaneria from the current Test series against South Africa. Kaneria was arrested by Essex police last season and questioned about “match irregularities”.
He was cleared of any offence in September. A well-placed ICC source said yesterday: “There is a strong ICC determination that any player who has been implicated should not be permitted to play in international or domestic cricket.”
Last week in Dubai was the only time, Haider said, he had been offered money for match-fixing. “I go home and spend time with family, I don’t want to meet bad people. I pray but praying is not everything. We need peace in all the world. I am against terrorism.” Even on a telephone line to Australia, his earnestness and sincerity were almost palpable.
Haider is one of less than a handful of Shi’a Muslims out of Pakistan’s 202 Test cricketers to date, even though Shi’as make up at least one-quarter of the country’s population. Normally, a cricketer’s religion should be a private matter. In this case, the values of Shi’asm may well be relevant, for it focuses on self-sacrifice and martyrdom for a noble cause, and followers are usually the have-nots of this material world.
Haider applied to play the Wisden City Cup in 2009. He turned up for trials at Victoria Park in London in the hope of playing for the London East team. He was not selected, as the competition is for UK residents of inner cities, but it indicated how keen he was for a game.
He kept in touch. In October 2009 Haider emailed to say he had made “54 not out in 1st game agaist (sic) Lahore v ztbl on last wicket with saeed ajmal partnership around 90 runs save ztbl
in 1st ing.” Zarai TBL is another company running a team in Pakistan cricket.
In November 2009 Haider emailed again to the WCC organisers. “I am looking club fr next year do u have any club for me if u have I need 2 contrect (sic) with any club plz.”
He made no mention of money. Clearly, if he were to have a contract with an English club, then money would almost certainly be involved. But the implication was that while he wanted enough to live on, payment was not his priority.
Instead of playing club cricket the next summer, he was otherwise engaged, scoring 0 and 88 on his Test debut at Edgbaston — the latter an innings of such character that it halted, even if it did not reverse, the tide of the series and provoked Stuart Broad into hurling the ball at him.
The evidence suggests Haider is an outsider, an attitude which the Pakistan board’s cancellation of his contract will only reinforce; and that he has chosen sacrifice, even martyrdom in terms of his professional career, for the sake of a noble cause, rather than being drawn into an evil in which, as he sees it, “a lot of people are involved”.
On Saturday he upped that to say he had been told in Pakistan that “many people are involved”. And the probability is that Haider is right.
And if Haider had remained captain, no doubt he would not have kept bowling Usman Sarwar, who had never played for Lahore before or since — who conceded 78 runs from three overs, mainly to Butt.
Who exactly told Haider to step down? “The coach said to me, if you do not rest, you will not be playing next year for Lahore.” The name of the coach, Haider yesterday told The Sunday Telegraph, is Sajad Akbar.
This new evidence will pile the pressure on the Pakistan Cricket Board after they found no evidence of foul play when they first investigated this match. Pakistan, having been informally threatened by the International Cricket Council with being banned from the next World Cup if they do not put their house in order, have begun to act, banning the leg-spinner Danish Kaneria from the current Test series against South Africa. Kaneria was arrested by Essex police last season and questioned about “match irregularities”.
He was cleared of any offence in September. A well-placed ICC source said yesterday: “There is a strong ICC determination that any player who has been implicated should not be permitted to play in international or domestic cricket.”
Last week in Dubai was the only time, Haider said, he had been offered money for match-fixing. “I go home and spend time with family, I don’t want to meet bad people. I pray but praying is not everything. We need peace in all the world. I am against terrorism.” Even on a telephone line to Australia, his earnestness and sincerity were almost palpable.
Haider is one of less than a handful of Shi’a Muslims out of Pakistan’s 202 Test cricketers to date, even though Shi’as make up at least one-quarter of the country’s population. Normally, a cricketer’s religion should be a private matter. In this case, the values of Shi’asm may well be relevant, for it focuses on self-sacrifice and martyrdom for a noble cause, and followers are usually the have-nots of this material world.
Haider applied to play the Wisden City Cup in 2009. He turned up for trials at Victoria Park in London in the hope of playing for the London East team. He was not selected, as the competition is for UK residents of inner cities, but it indicated how keen he was for a game.
He kept in touch. In October 2009 Haider emailed to say he had made “54 not out in 1st game agaist (sic) Lahore v ztbl on last wicket with saeed ajmal partnership around 90 runs save ztbl
in 1st ing.” Zarai TBL is another company running a team in Pakistan cricket.
In November 2009 Haider emailed again to the WCC organisers. “I am looking club fr next year do u have any club for me if u have I need 2 contrect (sic) with any club plz.”
He made no mention of money. Clearly, if he were to have a contract with an English club, then money would almost certainly be involved. But the implication was that while he wanted enough to live on, payment was not his priority.
Instead of playing club cricket the next summer, he was otherwise engaged, scoring 0 and 88 on his Test debut at Edgbaston — the latter an innings of such character that it halted, even if it did not reverse, the tide of the series and provoked Stuart Broad into hurling the ball at him.
The evidence suggests Haider is an outsider, an attitude which the Pakistan board’s cancellation of his contract will only reinforce; and that he has chosen sacrifice, even martyrdom in terms of his professional career, for the sake of a noble cause, rather than being drawn into an evil in which, as he sees it, “a lot of people are involved”.
On Saturday he upped that to say he had been told in Pakistan that “many people are involved”. And the probability is that Haider is right.
