When Zulqarnain Haider stroked the winning runs for Pakistan against South Africa in a One-day Test match at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in November 2010, he had every right to be ecstatic. His 19 not out in the fourth of a five-match series had very definitely secured a place for him in the national side, and enhanced his dream to become a wealthy and feted superstar.
This talented 24-year-old all-rounder, who had emerged from a humble family home in the dusty backstreets of Lahore, could now feel confident of establishing a permanent place in the Pakistan team. Above all else he was thrilled at hitting those winning runs because he knew his friends back home would be proud of him for putting his family name high in the sporting headlines.
But behind all his extroverted leaping and bat-waving, Haider was riddled with personal turmoil, as he was concealing a secret that would soon catapult him back into the headlines – only next time a great deal bigger, and certainly more sinister, than before.
Within a few hours after Pakistan’s stunning victory it emerged that on the eve of the match Haider had asked a management official for his passport, claiming that he needed it to buy a SIM card for his mobile phone. The official readily handed it to him, and he had no cause to doubt that the reason Haider had given him was the truth, but it soon turned out that he desperately needed his passport, not for a SIM card, but to fly to the UK where he would frantically seek asylum.
Everyone in the Pakistan tour party was understandably staggered when it became known that Haider had quietly slipped away from under their noses at the team’s hotel shortly after their brilliant victory, taken a taxi to the airport and boarded a flight to London. According to Haider, he had borne his terrifying secret all through his match-winning innings, and it was only after he had landed in England that he felt safe enough to talk about it.
From a room in a hotel close to Heathrow airport he broke his silence in a disturbing statement to an Asian newspaper: ‘I received death threats to lose the fourth and fifth One-day Internationals against South Africa, but I could not compromise the dignity of my country. I would rather flee away than sell out the dignity and respect of my motherland, and I cannot talk about the kind of threats that I have received because my family is in Pakistan.’
Haider, whose wife and two young children were at home in Lahore, burst into tears when asked about his family and claimed that he did not alert the Pakistan Cricket Board about the alleged threats because ‘it would have worsened the situation’. It was not clear what Haider meant by this cryptic comment, although it did remind me of the former Pakistan batsman Qasim Omar, who blew the whistle on bookmakers and corrupt cricketers. He was banned for seven years and had his career destroyed by officials who took exception to his desire to want to clean up the game.
Another well-known fact was that ruthless bookmakers and gamblers preferred to target young players and those new to international cricket, as they were more easily intimidated and less likely to turn down an offer of big money and other attractive perks. In this respect Haider, a wicketkeeper and top-order batsman, was highly vulnerable, having played in only one Test match, four One-day Internationals and three Twenty/20 games, though it was commendable that such a novice in world cricket was able to handle his horrendous experience with such courage and maturity.
Millions of sports fans would have been aware of Haider on the subcontinent because of their fanatical interest in cricket, and through the extensive television coverage that the game is given throughout Asia. Haider’s only Test match was against England at Edgbaston in the summer of 2010, when he was dismissed first ball but scored an aggressive 88 in his second innings. He then broke a finger and had to miss the rest of the series.
At a second news conference in west London, shortly after he had landed from Dubai, a frightened Haider recalled the moment when a man from a gambling gang, whom he had never seen before, approached him before the One-day match and allegedly said: ‘If you work with us, we will give you a lot of money. If you do not, we will kill you, and your family.’
With his voice distinctly cracking, an emotional Haider made it plain that he did not tell a single colleague or official of the threat, or his plan to flee, because he feared that if it leaked out that a particular person knew of his proposed getaway and why, and had said nothing, the game’s top brass would make life hell for him.
Haider said: ‘I felt very nervous, and I thought England was the best place to come to. I just felt that if I told anyone about the threat – senior players, my manager, the Pakistan Cricket Board – maybe if they were involved in the situation, that they too would be in trouble. If your family was threatened, you would think like me.’
He said he was approached with the bribery offer when he left the team hotel for dinner, and he recalled that horrific experience to a large Pakistan television audience after landing in the UK, saying: ‘I received death threats to lose the fourth and fifth One-day Internationals. One person asked me to fix those two matches and [said] there would be a problem for me if I did not do it. I was told to cooperate or I would face lots of problems.
‘I couldn’t be part of any corruption in the series or go against my country. My only concern now is the safety of my family in Lahore. I have decided it is best for me to retire from international cricket since my family and I are constantly getting threats. I can assure you that I am safe and sound, but I cannot say where I am hiding for the sake of my life.’
Haider was understandably eager for his family to be allowed to join him in the UK, and disclosed that immigration officials in London had advised him to appoint a lawyer to plead his case, but he claimed that he had no money to hire one, and that he was forced to do it all himself.
Before boarding his flight from Dubai, the fleeing Haider managed to find a minute to update his Facebook page to read: ‘Leaving Pakistan cricket because get bad msg fr 1 man fr lose the match in last game.’
Haider’s brother, Aqil, said on a television news programme that the ‘man who apparently approached Zulqarnain in Dubai seemed to be of Indian origin, and he threatened that if my brother didn’t take money, and play accordingly, not only would his life be in danger, but they would also kidnap his family’.
The longer Haider remained in London over the next few days, the more talkative he became about his fears for the integrity of cricket in Pakistan, and he specifically recalled being the target of threats when captain of his club side, Lahore Eagles. He said: ‘Yes, I got threats that I should select such-and-such a player, or not pick a certain player…’
Haider referred in particular to a Royal Bank of Scotland Cup match between Lahore and the National Bank of Pakistan that was played in the spring of 2009. He had successfully led Lahore right through this One-day series, but the captaincy was suddenly taken from him for this match because he refused to pick at least one player whom he had been told had to be in the team. What followed in the course of the match was highly suspicious. National Bank was one of the strongest domestic teams in Pakistan, but needed to win this particular match and improve their run rate to be sure of qualifying for the final stages of the RBS Cup tournament.
Lahore batted first and scored 122 in 40.3 overs. Haider was dismissed for a duck. But it was what came next that caused Haider the greatest concern, and it was such an unusual sequence of events that any fair-minded person would have shared his doubts and worries.
National Bank raced to 123 in just 6.1 overs without losing a wicket, which was a phenomenal response and comfortably raised their overall run rate for the tournament. Even more extraordinary, Lahore’s opening bowler conceded a mammoth 78 runs in just three overs! And it came as no surprise to learn that Haider had expressed ‘serious reservations’ about having this so-called bowler in the team.
This bowler was a modest right-arm paceman who had never played for Lahore before that match, and has not appeared in a List ‘A’ game since then. So why did he play on that occasion? A further interesting aspect of that match was that Salman Butt, the Pakistan captain who was gaoled and banned over the 2010 spot-fixing allegations, hammered 92 runs from only 25 deliveries, with 16 fours and five sixes.
Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz, who were all questioned by British police along with Butt in the spot-fixing probe, also played for National Bank in that match. Media commentators led the way with inevitable questions about the astonishingly unlikely circumstances of the match, but the Pakistan Cricket Board found no evidence of any wrongdoing.
While still urgently seeking asylum in the United Kingdom, a visibly stressed Haider called a media conference in the relative safety of a curry house among the heavily-populated Asian community in Southall, west London, and pleaded with the International Cricket Council to bug the telephones of players who were suspected of match-fixing.
Earlier in the day, Haider had learned that the PCB had appointed a three-man committee to investigate why he had left the team hotel in such a frenzied dash; and officers of the UK Border Agency had interviewed him to begin inquiries into his application for asylum. In a message to the ICC, troubled Haider said: ‘The best way is for them to record all the players’ phones, and their activity. I’ve heard that back in Pakistan a lot of people are involved in fixing, but I think the ICC are doing a good job.’
By now, the PCB had withdrawn Haider’s central contract of 50,000 rupees (£365) a month, and he insisted that he had only £500 in his pocket, having arrived in London with just £900, which was his daily wage. Despite his prodigious problems, Haider remained resolutely undaunted, and said: ‘God will help me somehow. I am not worried about losing the central contract because only God gives you food. I will leave these decisions to cricket.’
Around six months after landing at Heathrow, and while still waiting for news of his asylum application, Haider revealed that his wife Shazia and daughters Zahra and Fizza were planning to fly to London to be with him, which would ease his worries about their safety at home in Lahore.
Yet at the same time as his spirits were being raised at the prospect of a joyous family reunion, Haider bitterly complained that the Pakistan Cricket Board was withholding up to £16,000 in wages from him, and he was also threatening to sue them for ‘character assassination’.
PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt refused to confirm or deny that wages were being kept from Haider, but the Board’s senior lawyer Tafazzul Rizvi was adamant that any legal action by him that alleged ‘character assassination’ would be defended strongly.
At this point, Haider was looking for every opportunity to plead his case for asylum in the UK, and was desperate to assure the Home Office that he ‘wanted to pay tax and play [cricket] normally here’.
It took Haider just four days after the three Pakistan players were banned for spot-fixing in February 2011 to lay down a tantalising challenge to the International Cricket Council.
Right out of the blue, he daringly invited investigators from the ICC headquarters in Dubai to fly to meet him, probably in London, and he positively promised to make their journey worthwhile by naming and shaming the ‘big names’ who were corrupting world cricket.
Sticking his neck out, Haider insisted that Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir and Salman Butt were ‘just the tip of the iceberg’, and he assured everyone that ‘there are some very big names involved in these illegal activities, but they are getting away [with it], as thorough investigations are not being carried out,’ which appeared to represent a hefty swipe at the ICC and sleepy officials high up in cricket’s national boards.
With absolute confidence Haider predicted that: ‘Players are going to be even more careful now, and I know that they are watching their backs and attempting to make it even more difficult for the Anti-corruption Unit to catch them. I am ready to name and shame them, if asked by the relevant authorities.’
It must be assumed that the ICC and its Anti-corruption Unit made immediate contact with Haider to grab this gilt-edged opportunity, and if they didn’t it could be fairly classed as gross irresponsibility and a dereliction of duty. They would have let the game down in a very big way. The ICC declined to comment on whether it had taken up Haider’s offer.
Haider was also especially keen for the ICC to expand its areas of investigation, which would allow it to take a closer look at the personal finances of international cricketers and find ways of examining their bank accounts and financial dealings.
Above all else, he believed that the personal contracts these players signed with their boards should include a clause that would compel them to disclose every financial transaction and bank account detail to board officials and the ICC when required.
Stressing his determination to help lead the fight against international cricket corruption, Haider said: ‘I sacrificed a promising career and my mission now is to clean up the game. I am prepared to do anything to help [those in authority to achieve this aim].
‘This is just the start. The net has to be widened, and it has to be widened across other countries in addition to Pakistan.’
On hearing of Haider’s dramatic arrival in London, and the alarming allegations that he had made, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, the Pakistan High Commissioner to the UK, said: ‘We will give him any consular assistance that he requires.’ It was just the type of warm welcome that Haider needed in his hour of anguish, but this upbeat tone did not last long before a depressingly cold reaction blew in from Pakistan’s Sports Minister Ijaz Hussain Jakhrani, who blasted Haider for what he had done.
‘If he is such a weak and scared person, he should not have played cricket in the first place,’ said Jakhrani firmly, with no sympathy whatsoever. ‘We don’t support his actions, and we believe he should have come to us if he was under threat from anyone. He didn’t have confidence in the national team management or Pakistan Cricket Board.’
These were bizarre comments coming from someone so high up in the Government, and it seemed that he had ignored completely the dangerous predicament of Haider and his family, who struggled to stay strong when under threat of serious physical injury and abduction. Jakhrani’s insensitive remarks clashed badly with the Pakistan Government’s more reasoned view of the dangerous situation for Haider’s immediate family; the Government had backed its support by arranging for armed police to stand guard outside their home in Lahore.
Every sign suggested that Home Office officials sighed with relief when the world’s most controversial cricketer Zulqarnain Haider flew out of Heathrow Airport for Pakistan on Sunday, 24 April 2011, after five months of being holed-up in a secret address in north London. A temporary immigration permit had allowed Haider to remain in the UK while his application to stay in the country permanently was ambling through a long-winded judicial process.
During this time, Haider opened up his heart to me in a fascinating interview over the telephone during which he alleged that the British High Commission had prevented his wife and children from coming to see him in London.
‘They’ve sent a letter to my wife and said that it was because I had no house and no money,’ he told me. ‘This made me very sad, and I got so low that I didn’t want to live any more. I thought of killing myself. If I’m given asylum here, I would like to play cricket for an English county championship club, and be a top professional in the UK.
‘The Pakistan Cricket Board has said that it will lift its ban on me if I go back, and that I’ll be allowed to play again, but I’ll have to stay silent on bookies and corruption. I’ve been told that I must play cricket and not talk in public about anything else. So I will play the game and do nothing more.’
Haider was speaking shortly after his wife, Shazia, and their two children, aged four and seven, had been bundled off a plane as it was about to fly from Lahore to Heathrow. Full of emotion, he claimed that officers from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had boarded the aircraft and ordered his wife to hand over their visas and travel documents, and had escorted them back to the airport lounge without a word of explanation.
In Lahore, one of Haider’s brothers publicly blamed British High Commission officials in Islamabad for what had occurred, and claimed to know that these officials had written to the FIA requesting them to take Shazia and the children off the plane. Shazia later confirmed that all their passports and documents had passed every stringent airport check, which meant that there was no legal reason for them being prevented from flying.
When Haider was asked how he reacted to the British Embassy’s apparent decision to keep his family from him, he whispered, ‘It made me sad. It broke my heart. To have my family with me in London would have been great. People have told me that it was a breach of human rights for the British Embassy to stop them from coming, and I’ve written to the Home Office to protest about it.’
At this point Haider dramatically abandoned his attempt to remain in the UK because he was sure the British Embassy would never let his wife and children join him and said that he found it impossible to continue living without them at his side.
He went on: ‘I’ve now withdrawn my application to stay in the United Kingdom, and I’m going back to Pakistan because I’m desperate to see my wife and beautiful children, and they are just as desperate to see me. The Pakistan government has assured me that we’ll all be given the highest level of protection, and I’ve been told that I must only play cricket, and not talk about bookmakers and cheating.
‘But if people from the ICC want to ask me what I know [about corruption in the game] I will talk to them, but it has to be a top man, someone I can trust. Corruption is happening in cricket all over the world. Please don’t think that only Pakistan players are doing it, because it’s widespread. There are many big names involved that would shock people everywhere. I don’t want to go into detail in public because I’m afraid of what might happen to me.’
Haider had stunned cricketers and cricket fans all over the world with alarming allegations that ‘very big names are getting away with match-fixing because thorough investigations are not being carried out. I am ready to name and shame them all if the relevant authorities want to ask me.’
This was a clear and positive invitation to the Anti-corruption Unit and the PCB to knock on his door so that he could lift the lid on the dirt and squalor that was swilling around in the game. But did they take up this golden invitation? Did they ever!
Yet again Haider reminded the cricket world why he fled from the Pakistan team, chillingly stating: ‘Death threats had been made on me if I didn’t lose the fourth and fifth One-day Internationals against South Africa, but I couldn’t compromise the dignity of my country.
‘A man from a gambling gang had told me, “If you work with us, we will give you a lot of money. If you don’t, we will kill you and your family.” Because I refuse to fix matches for bookies, I’m always in danger.
‘People know that I am a relaxed person. I’m not an angry person. I’ve sacrificed my career to stand up against the bad things in international cricket. I will never be sorry for what I’ve done [in exposing it]. I just want to be an honest sportsman.
‘I believe in honour and integrity. I thought other people would be like me and support me. But it’s not been like that. I put my head on the line to help clean up world cricket, and look what’s happened to me. I wasn’t even allowed to see my wife and children. Nothing could be worse than that!
‘Soon I will start a new chapter in my life, and I’ve been advised to concentrate on my cricket. If I go back to Pakistan and find I’m under pressure, and not have security, I will go elsewhere, maybe to Bangladesh or Australia, if they’ll have me.’
For the first time, Haider also revealed that he was sure his phone had been tapped and that he had to buy a new one whenever he spoke to his wife in Lahore.
When I approached the Home Office for a response to Haider’s scathing attack for allegedly keeping his wife and children from him, and using it as a ploy to press him into returning to Pakistan, a primed spokesman replied: ‘Sorry, we do not comment on individual cases at any time…’
Just four days before Haider was due to return to Pakistan, he nervously reported to police in London that he had again been threatened over the phone. A Scotland Yard spokesman immediately confirmed: ‘We have received an allegation from a Pakistan national, and officers from the Wandsworth Criminal Investigation Department are looking into it.’
Within 48 hours of this latest ‘threat’ Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, announced: ‘We have managed to trace the numbers from where the calls were made, and I have reassured him (Haider) that he and his family would be provided with foolproof security in Pakistan.’
There was noticeably no mention that these ‘numbers’ had been passed to the police, or how the person, or persons, had obtained Haider’s well-protected contact details to make the calls.
Malik and Haider had met in a London hotel after the Interior Minister had completed talks with Prime Minister David Cameron about Britain’s political links with Pakistan. There was no hint that Haider’s case had come up in conversation, but couldn’t be ruled out entirely. Haider had left the hotel bursting with confidence after Malik had given him ‘complete assurance’ that full security would be in place when he arrived back in Pakistan.
Despite the new threats, Haider flew from Heathrow to Pakistan as planned on 24 April 2011, and 12 hours later his plane touched down in Islamabad where a phalanx of security officers hurriedly escorted him to Malik’s office for a private top-level meeting. Haider was understandably prepared for yet more threats on his return to Pakistan, but was totally shocked when a writ arrived from the father-in-law of the country’s first choice wicket-keeper, Kamran Akmal.
Before he left for Pakistan, Haider had bullishly alleged that Akmal’s father-in-law was a bookmaker with close associates in a match-fixing gang. Kamran Akmal was incensed by Haider’s allegation, and announced on television that he would be sued for defamation.
So it was no surprise when Akmal’s father-in-law, a highly respected Lahore businessman, issued a defamation order for 100 million rupees on Haider, with his lawyer stating: ‘My client is a reputed businessman and will not tolerate such allegations. Haider must now produce evidence to back up his allegation or make a public apology or face legal action.’ No public statements have been made about any outcome to this matter, as far as we know.
High drama continued to escalate around Haider, not least when police in Siaklot – the sixth largest city in Pakistan, just 70 miles from Haider’s home in Lahore – arrested eight bookmakers in a gambling gang who had allegedly threatened the runaway cricketer.
The police chief in charge of the inquiry revealed that his team of officers had raided property in the city where the gang had built a gambling den of secret rooms behind rows of cupboards to conceal a cache of ammunition, 250 telephone handsets, satellite transmission equipment, mobile phones, and betting records that related to a large number of cricket matches.
In a detailed statement, the Siaklot police said that evidence had been found of phones being used for international calls, and that the gang claimed to have ‘contacts in very high places’ and had even threatened some of his officers.
Police sensationally reported that four of the men had admitted to making threatening calls to Haider, but no names were disclosed. They also reported a major breakthrough when they claimed to have arrested several bookmakers in Faisalabad for making threatening calls to Haider to prevent him from disclosing the names of match-fixers.
But again no names were revealed, and there was no public record of charges being made against any member of any gambling gang, which often occurred in cases that involved illegal bookmakers who magically wriggled off the hook and continued to operate with no fear of being fined or locked up.
Around five weeks after Haider had returned home, the PCB announced that a disciplinary committee would interrogate several players and members of the team management during its comprehensive Haider Inquiry.
Three high-ranking officials were selected to sit on a disciplinary committee to decide why Haider had fled the team hotel in Dubai in November 2010 without informing colleagues or someone in the management team. Sultan Rama, head of PCB domestic cricket operations, was appointed chairman with full responsibility to find out whether there was truth in Haider’s claim that he fled because he was threatened for refusing to cooperate in fixing the one-day series against South Africa in Dubai.
A senior PCB official announced that an investigation would be held because a conclusion must be reached on a valid reason for Zulqarnain violating the code of conduct. According to a PCB spokesman, no proof was ever offered to the PCB to substantiate Haider’s allegations.
Substantial police security was in place when Haider arrived at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore on 18 June 2011 to face the disciplinary panel under chairman Sultan Rama. Though Haider stuck rigidly to his original account of what occurred in Dubai, he now sheepishly conceded that he had been wrong to leave the Pakistan squad and fly to London without telling anyone in the management team what he intended to do.
After intense cross-examination, Haider pleaded guilty to PCB charges that his actions and statements had brought cricket and Pakistan into disrepute, and was promptly fined 500,000 rupees and put on probation for 12 months.
Sultan Rama announced: ‘As Zulqarnain has wasted one year because of this case, and as his father is seriously ill, we have decided to fine him 500,000 rupees and keep him under observation for one year.’
No one attempted to explain how Haider would be observed, or by whom, and there was predictably no comment about his boasts of knowing the cheats, or when the PCB planned to ask him for the ‘big names’ so that it could bring in the bloodhounds. This incredible lack of interest also posed the question of whether the ICC had similarly decided to ignore Haider’s dossier of corruption and preferred to let it drop rather than tackle it full on.
A spokesman for the PCB rejoiced: ‘Zulqarnain Haider pleaded guilty and asked the committee to pass the final order in this matter.’ He added that Haider ‘had no proof of any wrongdoing against any player or official’. This was an exceedingly crass comment considering that no one in authority had ever questioned him about what he knew!
Apparently full of remorse, Haider accepted the PCB’s punishment without a quibble, and said: ‘I did what I thought was best at the time, but I now realise that it was a wrong step. I will not do it again. I’m sorry for it, and I want to close the chapter, I only want to concentrate on cricket.’
In truth, it sounded as though a PCB official had scripted this prodigious apology and hurriedly placed it under Haider’s glowing red face to accentuate his embarrassment.
Haider returned to first-class cricket in Pakistan in October 2011 when he took three catches, but failed to score a run. Whether Haider ever raised the money to pay his fine, bearing in mind that he was penniless when in London, will inevitably remain a secret – just like all those ‘big names’ he claimed to know, but was never asked to divulge.
What is so appalling about this whole episode is that corruption was being allowed to prosper – and still is – while those with the power to do something about it shamefully refused to do their duty to try to stamp it out.
Former Australian spin bowler Tim May, now the highly respected head of the international players’ union, insisted that cricketers everywhere were shying away from reporting corruption because they did not trust their own national board, or the ICC. May stressed that he ‘admired’ Haider’s ‘courage’ and was sure that ‘some players have concerns about reporting [corrupt activities] because they fear the confidential nature of them reporting it will be breached’.
Straight-talking May was in no doubt that Haider had done international cricket a substantial service by drawing attention to a problem that needed to be stamped out speedily and thoroughly. He said: ‘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.
‘I am 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 that there is general knowledge around the Anti-corruption Unit that these threats have been used before. The damage to our sport is not immaterial. Every spectator and every player wants to know that every contest they play in is a vital and real contest, not one that has 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 cannot just sit by the wayside, and think that this thing is going to go away. Whatever we have done in the past is obviously not working as well as it should be. We need to review our ways.’
Tim May made it clear that he was convinced that there were any number of players who had no faith in their national cricket boards or in the Anti-corruption Unit, and he said ominously: ‘This problem is not an issue that is just confined to Haider. In the past, certain players have gone to the Anti-corruption Unit, and details of their talks with the Unit have reached the media. Whether those talks have come from the ICC, or whatever, it still gives the players the question over whether they can trust the Anti-corruption Unit.
‘We’ve said to the ICC that we need to get the reporting processes streamlined far better than what they are at the moment. We have put forward a couple of options to the ICC in a meeting we had with the Anti-corruption Unit for a change in the reporting system. We have not heard from them since that meeting, but we hope they will look at those options in a positive manner.
‘These [options] involved the players reporting to a trustworthy body in the players’ eyes, a place where they believed their anonymity could be protected. In most cases, in most countries, we believe that the players’ association has a vital role to play.’
May’s outspoken views, especially his verbal assault on the Anti-corruption Unit, provoked a stinging reaction from ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat, who branded him ‘ignorant or irresponsible’ and was livid about allegations that confidential details that were reported by players had been deliberately leaked to the media.
In a fierce outburst, Lorgat declared: ‘He [May] said that the players have no confidence in approaching the ACSU [Anti-corruption and Security Unit]. I felt it quite strange that Tim May was making these comments. He either made them out of ignorance or, I hope, he is not being irresponsible. Those comments are certainly not justified in my view.’
Lorgat claimed that many cricketers had gone to the ICC to report being offered money, and that not one of those confidential visits had been reported publicly. He assured everyone: ‘We have never made any disclosure about which player came and spoke to us. We don’t say who has come, because we protect their identities.’ Yet another former Australian bowler, paceman Geoff Lawson, fully endorsed what Tim May feared about corruption and kidnapping being a real and positive threat to international cricketers.
He also wondered whether certain Pakistan players had been compelled by outside forces to take part in the 2010 spot-fixing scandal that ended with three of the team being suspended, and several others being interrogated by the police and the ICC. Lawson was coach to the Pakistan first team for 15 months between July 2007 and October 2008, and believed that criminal gangs deliberately targeted certain players, and that they had sinister ways of making sure that matches proceeded in a specific way to a pre-arranged plan – and this did not necessarily involve money.
In his Sydney Morning Herald column, Lawson wrote: ‘[The allegations] could be related to extortion, threats, and the well-being of [the players’] own family members. It would not surprise me if illegal bookmakers have told players that if they do not perform x and y, their families will be kidnapped or harmed.’ Lawson recalled being summoned to a meeting in the captain’s hotel room on the eve of a match, and was shocked to find that a selector was also there waiting to speak to him.
A particular player had been dropped from the team for the next day’s match but the selector insisted that someone had to be removed from the chosen side for the other player to be brought back. Lawson alleged that the selector was terrified, and said: ‘I have been told that if he is not in the team tomorrow my daughter will be kidnapped, and I will not see her again.’
In addition, Lawson believed that there were many other factors that could potentially cause an international cricketer to become involved in shady practices, and he explained: ‘I will never condone any form of fixing, yet we should consider that a cricketer might not be thinking of personal gain but of getting money to buy a generator for his village because it doesn’t have electricity.
‘I had a lot to do with Mohammad Asif, and he was always missing training sessions to look after his sick mother. He has spent a lot of his money on looking after his family. And if Salman Butt is involved in any match-fixing I would be absolutely stunned. He is a very intelligent, polite guy, and has done well since taking over the team.’ The ICC suspended Asif and Butt, as well as 18-year-old Mohammad Amir, following investigations into the 2010 spot-fixing scandal.
According to certain players and commentators, kidnapping and intimidation have been poisoning Pakistan cricket for at least 25 years. Wasim Akram, one of the finest left-arm pace bowlers ever to perform in Test cricket, revealed in a Channel Four documentary that his 65-year-old father was kidnapped, and that the callous perpetrators had ignored his age and had beaten him up.
Akram’s voice trembled with anger when he recalled: ‘My brother rang me to say that my father had suffered a heart attack, and I believe the reason behind it was that he had been kidnapped for a day. The people who kidnapped him thought a match was fixed, even though someone else [and not I] was captaining the side at the time. They held him captive for a day, and they hit him all over – and he is 65 years old. If we don’t get justice in our country, where are we going to get justice?
‘After everything I have done [as a player for Pakistan], and I don’t get justice, what happens to other people out there? You can imagine what they go through. No one is more patriotic about Pakistan cricket than me. I’ve given so much to my country, and I don’t deserve this.
‘I don’t know what to do to get justice for my family or me. Someone has to help me! At times I feel at a loss, and at other times I am very down. It’s difficult to explain what I am going through, but I try to put on a brave face, and hopefully that will help me.’
Despite Akram’s enormously successful Test career, it did not guarantee that he would be immune from disciplinary punishment should any issue be proved against him, which was the case when he was censured by a Pakistan judicial inquiry into match-fixing, and his vociferous plea of innocence was rejected.
Judge Malik Mohammad Qayyum ordered that Akram must never captain Pakistan again, and ordered that his bank accounts should be audited. The incensed Akram raged in vain: ‘I’m respected all over the world apart from in my own country.’
Shortly after the 2010 spot-fixing scandal, a chilling death threat was made against beautiful television star Veena Malik, aged 32, a former girlfriend of Mohammad Asif, who had been identified as one of the players caught up in the scam. According to Veena, the threat followed her call to the ICC about Asif’s alleged link to an Indian bookmaker. She was reportedly threatened in person, and also in an e-mail message, which warned: ‘Don’t talk to the media. Keep your mouth shut. I’ll kill you. Watch what I do.’
Veena told the media that the man who had approached her had warned that someone would be going after her, and she broke down, sobbing: ‘I can’t sleep at night. I fear for my life.’ Her sensational claim was that she had discovered that boyfriend Asif was ‘throwing matches’ when a particular number appeared on a phone bill, and believed that it belonged to another woman, and that he was having an affair.
Veena claimed that cheating was rife among players, and continued: ‘I knew that he had women all over the world, so I rang this number thinking it was another of them, but a man answered, and he claimed that they were working on commercial campaigns together.’
According to Veena, the much-travelled Asif also slipped off secretly to Thailand, and he admitted that he struck a deal with an Indian man while there. She also alleged that she listened to Asif on the telephone when a man was supposed to have said: ‘We spent a lot of money on you, and you’ve made a commitment to us.’
Making a specific allegation, Veena added: ‘They were paying Asif £25,000 to play badly, but he said he needed £128,000. It was a couple of weeks before Pakistan’s tour of Australia. One day I told him I was praying for them to win, and he replied: “Why are you wasting your time? We’re not going to win anything until December 2010.” I told him not to be involved [with bookmakers], but he did not listen.’
Veena and Asif separated sometime in 2010, and she later claimed that he had made calls to bookmakers on telephones belonging to servants. She said she knew the name of a well-known Indian bookmaker who allegedly paid Asif for spot-fixing in matches. She also said that she had advised the PCB about the places that Asif had visited.
Betting is officially banned on religious grounds in India and Pakistan, but those who wish to be involved just carry on with impunity, totally disregard ethical laws, and set up gambling dens in front rooms, back rooms, garden sheds, offices – and even in a room at a Karachi hospital. Illegal gambling generates a turnover of around £2 billion a year in Asia, and betting on international cricket plays a principal part in this enormously lucrative industry.