®What is it about the subcontinent that intrigue becomes ans essential ingredient even in serious matters, even for instance, when you are on the trail of corrupt cricketers? Why is national honour subservient to narrow, practical interests? Almost a kind of reverse racism. Something on the lines of "the goras are going scot-free so why should we use the shovel on our players?" Cricketers seem to be in a jurisprudence of their own making, getting away by holding millions of fans to ransom. The administrators harbour the illusion that individual malfeasance is a premise for national disgrace. That is absurd. What is a national disgrace is the administrator's reluctance to act on information that is in their possession. That makes them an accomplice.
In Pakistan, the Justice Malik Muhummad Qayyum commission of inquiry into match-fixing allegations against cricketers was supposed to have released its findings by January-end. This was before Australian Cricketers Shane Warne and Mark Waugh admitted receiving money from an Indian bookie. On January 1, 1999, a hearing session of Qayyum was put off. On January 3, the Pakistan Cricket Board named Wasim Akram captain till the World Cup though he figured on the prime accused list along with Salim Malik, Ijaz Ahmed, Mushtaq Ahmed, Waqar Younis, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Moin khan, Akram Raza, Saqlain Mushtaq and Saeed Anwar. On January 15, the PCB announced the team to India, even thought Qayyum had scheduled a cross-examination session on January 16. Five Pakistan players stayed away form it--Akram, Waqar, Ijaz, Moin Khan and Salim Malik.
Now the date of their cross-examination has been indefinitely postponed and there's talk that nothing will happen 'till the World Cup'. And, 'nothing at all' if this current team wins the Cup. As if, victory would be a strong enough balm to forget crimes of the past. The key figure shielding Pakistani players at the moment is PCB chairman Khalid Mahmood himself. Says a former PCB administrator:"Look, Mahmood has no interest in letting the report see the light of day. Though he is there at the pleasure of Nawaz Sharif government, nobody knows whose brief he is carrying. Sarfaraz Nawaz spoke a lot about match-fixing. He bought him off by making him a bowling coach in Islamabad at a salary of Rs 1 lakh per month (Rs.100,000). Because the Karachi cricket association has two votes in the council, he has appeased the endlessly. Hyderabad now has been promoted to grade 1 cricket for their vote in the council even though their cricket is grade 2. Majid Khan never did it. There is also some talk that he and Justice Qayyum are huge friends. I don't know. Former administrators like Arif Abassi and Zafar Altaf are now singing a song in favour of the guilty. The reason for that is the players' misdeeds took place in their time and they don't want to be blamed, even if they suppress the truth, as they were at the helm of affairs. Somebody has to do something---either the ICC or the Government of Pakistan."
Here are excerpts from the testimonies of 16 people who appeared before Qayyum. The depositions have been edited for purposes of brevity. The question is, will the International Cricket Council's newly-constituted commission for match-fixing take up this issue---now that Outlook has published excerpts of the Qayyum report---with the PCB before the World Cup or is not going poke its head into the beehive? The credibility of both the ICC and PCB are at stake. In his deposition, Imran Khan cites the example of a baseball finals in the US in 1919 where one match was fixed and the whole team was indicted for match-fixing: "the team was banned forever." In Europe, entire soccer teams have been banned on flimsier grounds.
In Chennai, When Outlook asked Pakistan coach Javed Miandad about match-fixing, he said:"Bhai, aage wali nasal ke liye hame ek example set karna hai. Unke zehan mein ye baat dalni hai kay ye sab karne ki cheeze nahin hain (We have to set an example for the next generation. We have to instil deeply in them the need to stay away from such things)."
Where does all this leave the BCCI and its own inquiry conducted by Justice Chancdrachud? BCCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur told Outlook that the BCCI decided not to release the entire report as it would lead to more rumor-mongering. So if the BCCI wants to appropriate for itself the role of judge, jury, prosecutor and defence counsel, an all-in-one approach, ther are bound to be pitfalls along the way. Who knows what some enterprising journalist might discover round the bend?
One last thing! It would be nice for a change to hear the Sunny Gavaskars, the Chappels, the Shastaris, the Holdings, the Boycotts, the Barry Richards, the Imrans, the Clive Lloyds to take a firm stand, not just be content by saying "it's bad if it's happening and the ICC better do something about it." We are beyond the issue of nationalities. It's the game that counts.
Here's the Qayyum report---undiluted. Remember, the depositions were taken after taking an oath on the Holy Quran.