PCB ready to facilitate players appearance in IPL

KARACHI - Pakistan Cricket Board would provide all possible support at its own end to players interested in playing in the Indian Premier League. 

However, whether the Pakistani players were selected in any of the 12 franchised teams would be the decision of the team owners and the Indian board, said the newly appointed Chief Operating Officer Subhan Ahmed in his first interaction with local media here Saturday at the National Stadium. 

Chaudhry Anwar a member of the PCB governing board, who is also head of the PCB media committee and Nadeem Sarwar GM Media PCB also attended the media talk. 

Responding to queries on a number of issues put forth by a well attended media personnel, Subhan Ahmed, who started his association with the PCB 18 years ago here at the National Stadium, said, the PCB at its own end would help players get the NOC and any other documents needed to play in the IPL. He, however, added that no players had approached the PCB with any kind of request. 

The PCB, he said, had made contacts with the BCCI on the issue but the Indian cricket authorities had not come back to the PCB in the matter. 

Subhan Ahmed confidently fielded questions on all matters including coming hearing of three players in Doha but said there were a number of issues on which he could speak openly and frankly but he could not answer on some certain issues because of the sensivities involved. 

He avoided giving answers on the coming hearings of Salman Butt, Muhammad Aamer and Muhammad Asif. He also, when asked, did not disclose the names of the players whom the ICC had advised not to be considered for selection for the world cup saying that though he knew the names and the number of players but he could not give that information because he could not do so because of the confidential nature of the information. 

PAKISTAN CRICKET: WEAKNESS OF PAKISTAN’S CASE

International Cricket Council (ICC) doesn’t look serious to take efficient measures to stop match fixing. ICC’s recent actions seem to prove that they are hardly concerned. ICC have decided to clear the 30 players preface world cup squad after the approval of their Anti Corruption and Security unit. No one would disagree with the measures but it seems that it is meant only for Pakistan.  

The controversy started when British second-rate Tabloid “the News of the World” discretely suspected that seven Pakistani players were involved in spot-fixing, during the Lord’s Test against England in August. Scotland Yard broke in to the Pakistan team’s hotel and inquired with skipper Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz. On the basis of poor evidence, ICC suspended Salman Butt, Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Amer. They will not be part of world cup squad until ICC doesn’t clear them out of allegations.

On the other hand, a month back, Indian player Suresh Raina was also caught in a video with a lady who had relations with bookies. Sri Lankan Cricket Board forwarded the video to the Board of Cricket Controlling India (BCCI). ICC didn’t step in to the issue and no actions were taken against him. Danish Kaneria was also accused to have spot fixed while playing for Essex. Later on, he was cleared by county police but ICC pulled him back from the Test squad. These actions create wonders against ICC, why it looks to act against only Pakistan, in desperation. If ICC starts taking serious actions against the match fixing soon, cricket will be cleared from corruption. However, it seems that it’s not ICC’s fault only, as we all know about the strength of our Board as compared to other Boards of the world. It seems that it happens because of the role of politics in the country. It is like corruption. Politics is in the board, just because the Chairman is selected by a President of Pakistan, who is also a chairman of a larger political Party of the country. The Chairman of PCB is also a relative of the defense minister, Ahmed Mukhtar.

The Chairman is only answerable to the President of Pakistan, as he is nominated by him. However, it is understood that he should be elected on basis of merit. This is a basic cause of Politics in Cricket, in Pakistan. It seems that there should be democracy in the board and only a democratic Chairman should represent the country in the world.  Proper elections should be held in PCB and associations should select their chairman through a democratic process.

Afridi not happy

Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi was not happy with his side's Twenty20 loss to New Zealand on Boxing Day.

The tourists lost the first of three Twenty20 matches by five wickets at Eden Park.

New Zealand raced home when chasing 144 for victory.The side had made a good start to the innings and he felt they would be able to achieve a good target but they had been undone by hat-trick bowler Tim Southee.

"I thought he bowled really well. There were a few bad shots and Umar Akmal I think he was unlucky [given out lbw television evidence showed he hit the ball] but I think this is the right time before the World Cup and he should learn something from his mistake.

"The pitch was very good," he said.

His bowlers needed to hit specific areas more consistently and that had been borne out when New Zealand batted but he felt there should be an improvement in Tuesday's game in Hamilton.

Partnership building and bowling in the right areas would be crucial, he said.

Yousuf to play league cricket in Bangladesh

KARACHI: Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf has signed up to play with a Bangladesh club, Mohammedan Sporting, in the Premier Division Cricket League in Bangladesh. The club has brought in Yousuf in place of Sri Lanka all-rounder Farveez Maharoof, who returned home after sustaining an injury. 36-year-old Yousuf, who was ruled out of a Test series against South Africa in November due to a groin injury, was not picked for the upcoming Test series against New Zealand due to concerns over his fitness. Yousuf has played 90 Tests for Pakistan, averaging 52.29, but since the beginning of 2008 he has averaged just under 35 in 11 Tests, with a solitary hundred. “I have no idea about the competition in Bangladesh but you know cricket is cricket,” Yousuf told reporters after he completed the contractual formalities at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka. “I can understand the standard and nature of the competition after playing the first couple of games. I want to play all the matches if I am not selected for national duty. As a professional cricketer it would not be hard to motivate myself in this competition.” Several Pakistan cricketers including former fast bowler Wasim Akram have played in the Premier Division Cricket League.

PCB dismisses speculation of Butt facing ban

The Pakistan Cricket Board has rejected reports that suspended Test captain Salman Butt is set to be banned for seven years on charges of spot-fixing, saying that ICC will reach a decision only after a hearing to be held in Doha next month.

Sources in the ICC on Saturday dismissed suggestions that Butt could get a seven-year ban and be fined heavily for his involvement in the spot-fixing case while pace bowlers, Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Aamir could be banned for two years each.

"Only the three-member tribunal of the code of conduct commission can decide on the guilt or innocence of the players and until it meets and holds a hearing it cannot reach any decision," a source said.

He pointed out that the tribunal made up of three experienced judges who have been nominated on the code of conduct commission by the member boards of the ICC can only decide on the case after the players are given a chance to plead their case at the full hearing in Doha from January 6 to 11.

Another source, who is aware of the developments in the case, also made it clear that the tribunal cannot reach a decision unless it has heard all the facts at the full hearing.

"The tribunal has to decide on the merits and demerits of the case at the hearing and then reach any decision," the source added.

He said it was premature to make any suggestions that Butt could be banned for seven years or the two other players would get two year bans.

"Any suggestion that the tribunal has decided on the punishments for the players or decided on their guilt when the case is yet to heard is unfair on all parties," the source added.

He also insisted that only the tribunal can decide on the case against the three players and the ICC is not in a position to make decisions.

Butt, Aamir and Asif were provisionally suspended by the ICC anti-corruption unit on September 2 while touring England with the Pakistan team after it emerged that a Pakistani bookmaker Mazhar Majeed who was their agent had bribed them to deliberately bowl no-balls during the fourth Test against England at Lords and all this is captured on video recordings released by the News of the World tabloid newspaper.

Since his suspension, Butt and Aamir have had their appeals against their suspensions rejected by a one-man tribunal of the ICC code of conduct commission.