The Pakistan team has been under fire for a long time. There have been many controversies surrounding the team and the players. The man that had been in the spotlight for the past few months, Mazhar Majeed, has once again raised eyebrows. Imran Farhat, the Pakistan opener has been named as one of the seven cricketers with whom Mazhar Majeed had been working with. This claim was made by Mazhar Majeed in a latest video that came out on Tuesday on a private TV channel in Pakistan. Imran was not impressed with this footage which was on the media last Tuesday and has threatened to take legal action against Mazhar Majeed. Imran Farhat was dropped from the Pakistan team for the New Zealand tour due to poor batting performances against England and Australia. He was selected for the South African series but good performances from the openers Mohammad Hafeez and Taufeeq Umar forced the selectors to drop Farhat from the team.There may be a possibility of Mazhar Majeed taking the name of Imran Farhat by mistake but it is still quite early to predict. This information will be confirmed from Mazhar Majeed. Farhat has been in talks with his lawyer in London and after discussing the case, the player has decided to send a legal notice to Mazhar Majeed. The player would want a clarification from Majeed as to why his name was taken. Farhat also said that the name may have been taken by mistake. If that has happened the player would like a correction from Majeed that what he said was either incorrect or his name was mentioned by accident.
The footage which came on air was presented by the ICC against the suspended trio of Pakistan Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir. It was presented on the suspension hearing which was held in October. After the hearing the players remained provisionally suspended by the ICC until further progress on their case. The trio was upset with the decision but the ICC claimed to have enough evidence to stay with the decision which was made after the Test series loss against England.
Imran Farhat had been struggling throughout the season. He had been given chances in all three formats of the game but was unable to cement his place in the team. Averaging just a shade below 32 in test matches, Farhat has three centuries to his name in the 39 matches he has played until now. His one day average is almost the same being just below 31 in 37 matches he has played so far. He also has one century to his name in this format of the game. He has been unable to make a mark in the T-20 matches at the international level and has no good performances in the five matches he has featured in until now.
Issues like these have surrounded the Pakistan cricket team for the past year. The wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider also claimed that he would announce the names of those involved in spot fixing. He was a member of the team which toured UAE for the series against South Africa. He traveled to England claiming he had security concerns and received life threats from an unknown person.
The picture would be much clearer once Mazhar Majeed responds to the lawyer of Imran Farhat. It might be that his name would have been mentioned in some other context or it may have come up by mistake. Pakistan would like to get its name clear of all the controversies before the World Cup. The team can ill afford to face any more issues which would halt their World Cup preparations
