Pakistan's Zulqarnain Haider has been badly let down

For seven hours, as he sat on-board a routine Emirates flight from Dubai to London, Zulqarnain Haider was alone with his thoughts.
While his fellow passengers worked on their laptops, flirted with the Cabin Crew or dozed through in-flight movies, Haider enjoyed – if that is the right word – a rare period of peace. Given what we now know of the 72 hours that preceded his flight, those airborne hours were the first chance he’d had to grab a moment of calm and solitude.
And the last.
Because by the time Haider emerged looking pale and vacant in front of the Heathrow flash bulbs, things had changed. He had changed. No longer was he just a young wicketkeeper with a fondness for Facebook. He was something altogether more important. He was a Pakistani without a price.
“I just didn’t want to sell my country. ” said Haider on arriving in London. “The country is like your mother and if you sell that, you are nothing.”
Quite a quote isn’t it? As a defence of sporting integrity it was so succinct and noble that it almost broke your heart.
Here was a man, as he explained last night, who wanted one thing in his life – to win games for Pakistan. And eventually, after years of struggle and achievement, he’d finally earned that opportunity, only to discover this most rancid of realities: winning a game for Pakistan – the focus of his life – could also be the end of his life. No wonder he looked pale.
“I was not confident enough to speak to the team management about it because I didn’t want to get my other teammates into trouble. I did not do what I was asked to do, so this is the reason I left.  He [the match-fixer] said if you work with us, we will give you a lot of money. If you go back home, we will kill you and your family also.”‘
It is in the reaction to Haider’s decision, though, that a personal tragedy has become to public scandal.
Take first the comments of Pakistan’s Sports Minister Ijaz Hussain Jakhrani – who called Haider “weak and scared” and not fit for national duty. Or the Pakistan Cricket Board, who yesterday suspended his central contract and labelled him an “embarrassment.” This is too serious a subject to dwell on the irony of any organisation headed by Ijaz Butt using such language to describe others. And anyway, the real issue here isn’t the farcical PCB. It’s the International Cricket Council.
Presented with the most rare, fleeting and precious of opportunities – a potential whistle-blower – the ICC should have sent officers straight to London to meet with Haider. Its entire resources should have been directed toward protecting and reassuring him.
Even if Haider had proved to be as unreliable as his critics are claiming, the ICC was surely obliged to find out first. He is a desperate man looking for a sanctuary – literally – but the ICC have done nothing to provide the safety or security Haider is seeking. Or worse than nothing – they have left it to the PCB.
“Clearly this is in the first instance a team matter for Pakistan cricket but the ICC is willing to provide assistance to the PCB and the player,” said Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive.  “We understand his plight if reports are indeed true, but we can only help if he is willing to engage with us.”
With so much to lose, it is no surprise that Pakistani cricket is shunning Haider. But with so much to gain, it is mystifying why the ICC is doing the same.

Pakistan Team Manager Intikhab Alam Defends Management

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.

Spot-fixing scandal: ICC forms panel to hear case

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has constituted a three-member tribunal to hear the alleged spot-fixing charges against three suspended Pakistani players — Salman Butt, Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Amir.

Sources in the Pakistan Cricket Board confirmed that the head of the ICC Code of Conduct Commission, Michael Beloff QC would head the tribunal that also includes L.B. Siege of South Africa and Sharad Rao of Kenya.

“The hearing of the tribunal would be held anytime from January 3 to 11, 2011,” a source said.

The tribunal will examine the evidence that would be submitted to it by the ICC Anti-Corruption and Security Unit and also review the reports of Scotland Yard while deciding on the spot-fixing allegations against the trio.

The three players were provisionally suspended in England on September 2 by the ICC after the News of the World tabloid carried a report that an alleged match-fixer, Mazhar Majeed had bribed them to spot-fix in the fourth Test against England at Lord’s.

Subsequently, the trio filed an appeal with the ICC against their suspensions with Asif later withdrawing his appeal.

Butt and Amir appeared before a one-man appellate tribunal in Dubai last month which dismissed their appeals.

Sources said that Beloff and ICC’s legal team had informed the PCB of the formation of the tribunal during a tele-conference on Friday.

Haider says he has given ICC proof of plot to fix matches‎

Zulqarnain Haider, the Pakistan wicketkeeper who has applied for asylum in the UK, says he has handed over two letters to the ICC's anti-corruption unit that were given to him in Dubai by third parties seeking to fix two one-day internationals against South Africa.

Haider yesterday had his first contact with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) who have assured him they will provide the 24-year-old with "all assistance and co-operation". On Wednesday, the PCB suspended his central contract before speaking with him.

But Haider underlined that he will not be returning to his homeland because he fears for his own safety. "I told [them] I was genuinely concerned about the threats given to me for not getting involved in any racket to fix matches," he said. "When a prime minister like Benazir Bhutto could not be safe in Pakistan, I am just an ordinary cricketer. I am not stupid that I should give up my promising cricket career and leave my country to come to London. I did it for a reason and I feel safe in London."

Haider said that he would co-operate fully with the ICC. "I will not hold anything back from them," he said. But yesterday Tim May, the former Australia Test player who heads the international players' union, claimed that many cricketers are hesitant to report illegal approaches or concerns over corruption to the sport's governing body as they do not trust them.

May told the BBC: "They fear the confidential nature of them reporting it will be breached. This problem is not an issue that's just confined to Haider. In the past, players have gone to the anti-corruption unit and somewhere details of their talks with the anti-corruption has reached the media. Whether those leaks have come from the ICC or whatever, it still gives the players the question over whether they can trust the ICC's anti-corruption unit. We've said to the ICC we need to get the reporting processes here streamlined far better than what they are at the moment."

Haider yesterday met with the Pakistan High Commissioner in the United Kingdom, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, for the first time, and was promised legal assistance if required.

Pakistan today begin the first of a two-Test series against South Africa in Dubai.

Pakistan's Zulqarnain Haider had been dropped from one-day side before he fled to England

Zulqarnain Haider added a few more details to his story at an impromptu press conference in a Southall curry restaurant on Wednesday night. But not enough to persuade the officials of the Pakistan Cricket Board that he is a whistle-blower on endemic corruption.

“In our culture, when you are worried about your family’s safety, you run to their side,” Taffazul Rizvi, the PCB’s legal adviser, said. “Whereas he has run to a different country.”

Rizvi also questioned why, if Haider was approached to throw the fourth and fifth one-day internationals as he claims, he should have waited almost four days before acting. The alleged approach must have come on the Thursday night at the very latest, while Haider did not flee the country until Monday morning.

In a further twist to the story, Telegraph Sport understands that Haider would not have played in the Monday one-day international in any caseWhen Umar Akmal took over the gloves on Monday morning, it was widely assumed that the change had been imposed on Pakistan by Haider’s absence.

In fact, the intention had been to shift the balance of the team all along, with Akmal’s double-role allowing Mohammad Yousuf, who had just arrived in Dubai after recovering from a groin strain, to come in and strengthen a misfiring top six.

Haider’s omission was decided at a team meeting on Sunday night. For the player himself, who had been painted as Pakistan’s saviour after making an unbeaten 19 in the fourth one-day international, it must have come as a shock.

The International Cricket Council confirmed on Thursday that officers from the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit had visited Haider in his Heathrow hotel room on Tuesday night, although it is not thought that the player was able to expand substantially on the information he provided to TV networks about the man who approached him in Dubai.

“I remember his face and he spoke in Urdu which was not the way we speak. I can’t say much as I’m not sure of his nationality,” Haider told a Pakistani channel.

The ICC received criticism for its handling of the situation on Thursday from Tim May, chief executive of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations. “In the past, players have gone to the anti-corruption unit and somewhere details of their talks has reached the media,” May said.

“It gives the players the question over whether they can trust the ICC’s anti-corruption unit. The culture of cricket needs to change from top to bottom, from administrators to grass roots level. That culture needs to be one of zero tolerance of corruption.”

May suggested that the players’ unions themselves should be the first port of call for cricketers needing to report instances of corruption.

But the ICC is unlikely to buy into this idea, especially as there are no active unions operating in India or Pakistan — the two countries where illegal bookmaking appears to be most influential.

Meanwhile, Misbah-ul-Haq is due to become Pakistan’s fourth Test captain of the year on Friday morning, as his team prepare to take on South Africa in Dubai. Of the previous three, Yousuf is out of favour, Shahid Afridi has retired and Salman Butt is suspended pending a spot-fixing investigation

Cricketers do not trust ICC - players' chief Tim May

ricketers shy away from reporting corruption because they do not trust the authorities, says international players union chief Tim May.

Pakistan's Zulqarnain Haider has been criticised by his board for fleeing to England after receiving death threats when he refused to fix two matches.

But May said he admires Haider's "courage" and added: "Some players have concerns about reporting [corruption].

"They fear the confidential nature of them reporting it will be breached."

Wicketkeeper Haider claims he was approached in Dubai by a person who asked him to fix the fourth and fifth games against South Africa, who went on to win Monday's deciding game to earn a 3-2 victory in the series.

He is seeking asylum in the United Kingdom and has met with Pakistan's High Commissioner, who has offered the player legal assistance.

He has also spoken to Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt. The PCB had been trying to get hold of him since Monday and on Wednesday suspended his contract pending further investigation.

"I explained everything to him. I told him I was genuinely concerned about the threats given to me for not getting involved in any racket to fix matches in the one day series against South Africa," Haider old Geo News.

"He has assured me that the board will provide me all assistance and cooperation."

At a press conference in London on Wednesday, Haider said he did not immediately take his concerns to the Pakistan Cricket Board because it would create "problems" for his "team-mates".

Former Australia cricketer May says players do not have faith in their boards or the International Cricket Council's (ICC) anti-corruption unit, which has spoken to Haider since he arrived in the UK.

"This problem is not an issue that's just confined to Haider," he told BBC World Service. "In the past, players have gone to the anti-corruption unit and somewhere details of their talks with the anti-corruption has reached the media.

"Whether those leaks have come from the ICC or whatever, it still gives the players the question over whether they can trust the ICC's anti-corruption unit.

"We've said to the ICC we need to get the reporting processes here streamlined far better than what they are at the moment."

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Haider describes match-fixing death threats

May believes players' unions should be the first port of call for cricketers wanting to report corruption.

"We have put forward a couple of options to the ICC in a meeting we had with anti-corruption unit in October for a change in the reporting system," he added.

"We haven't heard from the ICC since that meeting. But we hope they will look at those options in a positive manner.

"These involve the players reporting to a trustworthy body in the players' eyes. Somewhere they believe they can protect their anonymity and in most cases in most countries we believe that the player association has a vital role to play here."

Haider's actions have cast a negative spotlight over Pakistan cricket once again following the spot-fixing scandal earlier this year.

Three players - batsman Salman Butt and pace bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif - were suspended and placed under investigation for alleged spot-fixing during the tour of England earlier this year.

But May believes Haider has done the game a service by flagging up a problem which needs to be stamped out of the sport.

DAVID BOND'S BLOG If his story is true - and at this stage we have no reason to doubt him - then Haider has shown remarkable bravery

"If what he says is true, what he's done is not cowardly, it has taken a significant amount of courage, because no one has ever done that before," said May.

"I'm certainly not surprised that there are players out there who have been threatened, their families have been threatened and they are fearful for their lives.

"I think you'll find there's a general knowledge around the anti-corruption unit that these threats have been used before.

"The damage to our sport is not immaterial. Every spectator, every player wants to know that every contest they are playing in is a valid and real contest, not one that's been affected by corruption.

"The culture of cricket needs to change from top to bottom, from administrators to grass roots level. That culture needs to be one of zero tolerance of corruption.

"Cricket can't just sit by the wayside and think this thing's going to go away. Whatever we've been doing in the past is obviously not working as well as it should. We need to review our ways."