To stop match-fixing, “Criminal Act will have to be passed in the Assembly. Until this Act passes, these people will not be afraid. They will continue to do this. They will continue to do match-fixing.”
This was said by Shoaib Akhtar in a YouTube video, in response to which the legal adviser of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Tafzal Rizvi, has sent him a notice of damages of Rs 100 million.
Furthermore, Tafzal Rizvi has made it clear that they will donate the expected collection to the Lahore High Court Bar Association Medical Center.
It is not clear whether Tafzal Rizvi wants to remain alive forever in Pakistan cricket or also in the history of Corona Virus in Pakistan, but it is quite clear that this notice was not sent to Shoaib Akhtar because of legislation against fixing but because of abuses or words which he has used against Tafzal Rizvi in that youtube video.
If we look only at the kind of the language which Wasim Akram used, then the complaint of Tafzal Rizvi is really understandable, but in the context of the arguments that Shoaib Akhtar has put forward, many important questions arise on the PCB’s policy regarding match-fixing.
Whether the ban on Umar Akmal is severe or not, only a legal expert can tell, but it is clear that even before the recent demand for legislation against the fixing of Ehsan Mani, the PCB has failed to set a precedent of severe punishment in this case.
Shouldn’t Muhammad Amir’s trial 10 years ago has been a beacon for the institution that the British legal system did not grant him release from prison despite his less age?
On the contrary, our entire cricketing structure has struggled a lot to get him out.
At this level, if one looks at the crimes like fixing and gambling, one, in fact, does not only play with this sacred game but also with the emotions of millions of spectators, just for his/her own financial gains.
The more a nation is attached to cricket, the stricter the rules are. Whether it is Sri Lanka or the United Kingdom or Australia, strict punishments have been imposed regarding fixing and they also impact the relevant cricket culture in this way.
Why is it that even after looking into the distant past, we are not able to gather a few examples of financial corruption in Australian cricket culture?
Shoaib Akhtar mentions in his video that cricket fans of the 90’s often has went through this, because this is the cricket culture where no one has ever known that during the World Cup, Why does the captain’s shoulder suddenly ache just five minutes before the quarter-final match?
Aamir Sohail’s statement is still there in recorded form, but the PCB never tried to peek into it.
We are living in the cricket culture in which one player accuses the other of a fixing offer of Rs 300,000, then denies it and then claims that the chairman of the board pressured him to change his statement.
That chairman remains silent on the issue even after his retirement, but one day, 20 years later, he suddenly says that Ata-ur-Rehman’s allegation was true.
Not only this, he also called three matches suspicious, including the 1999 World Cup final. Why is Chairman Khalid Mahmood, who had a soft spot for Wasim Akram during his time, now saying that if Ata-ur-Rehman had not changed his statement, Wasim Akram would have been banned for lifetime?
What a cricket culture this is where a convicted former player is making videos for a job in the PCB and many of his ‘batch mates’ are dedicated to serving the PCB in the past, present and future. According to Qayyum’s report, almost all the convicts have served to the PCB.
And in the midst of all of this, former wicket-keeper Zulqarnain Haider has opened another debate that in 2010 Umar Akmal had threatened him to perform badly against South Africa.
His story also tells that head coach Waqar Younis settled the matter to such an extent that he had to flee to England to save his himself. Will the PCB bother to re-examine these allegations?
Although all these questions are in front of the chairman of the PCB like a crisis, there is a possibility that Ehsan Mani will settle this issue this time.
Why is that someone always digs old graves and refreshes the forgotten wounds and then suddenly becomes silent?
Why does Javed Miandad reconcile four days after the accusation and calls Shahid Afridi his younger brother?
This stain of fixing has repeatedly tarnished the face of Pakistan cricket in the last 35 years. As the captain of 1992 is now the head of the Legislative Assembly, why should not we fix all the matters of the 1990s at once?