India is trying to defame us: Intikhab

[Bhushan]

India is trying to defame us: Intikhab

KARACHI: National coach Intikhab Alam accused the Indian media of triggering and fanning the match-fixing debate and said the Pakistan Cricket Board should decide whether there is any need to restore cricketing ties with a neighbor which is "hell bent" on damaging them.

"The Indian media should be ashamed of itself for creating these stories about our team being involved in match-fixing in the Champions Trophy," a furious Alam said in an interview.

"All this stuff about our team being involved in match-fixing started because of a report in some Indian newspapers and since then they have carried out a relentless campaign to defame us," he said.

"Maybe it is time we also reviewed our cricket relations with India and decided whether we really need to play them when they are hell bent on trying to damage us," said Alam, who had coached the Punjab Ranji team in India.

Alam was shocked that a parliamentarian like Jamshed Dasti, who heads the National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports, made a noise on the basis of the reports in India.

"The truth is that it is hard for the Indians to digest the fact that this year in two major tournaments their team, whom they tagged as favourites, was eliminated in the first round and our team not only won the Twenty20 World Cup but also reached the semi-final of the Champions Trophy," he said.

"It is hard for them to accept that we did much better than their team in the Twenty20 World Cup and Champions Trophy," he said.

Alam said it was shameful that although the ICC Anti-Corruption and Security Unit had expressed no concerns whatsoever, the Indian media was creating all sorts of stories.

"They even came up this story that myself and Younis Khan have been sacked. I don't know from where they got this story. It is laughable because our board has full confidence in me and the captain," he said.

Alam also hit out at Jamshed Dasti stating he should be very careful while giving statements on cricket matters.

"Without any evidence or proof how can he make such allegations?" he said.

Dasti had accused the Pakistani team of throwing their match against Australia.

Alam said if the National Assembly Committee asked him to attend any hearing to discuss the Champions Trophy performances he would definitely go.

"I'll go because we have nothing to hide. We played bad cricket and lost the semi-final, that is all. We just need to learn from our mistakes," he said.

 

[Bhushan]

Now, Pak blames India for match-fixing

A senior Sindh minister on Tuesday (October 6) accused India of influencing umpires to get Pakistan ousted from the Champions Trophy semifinal in South Africa. Muhammad Ali Shah, the minister for Sports and a member of the Pakistan Cricket Board governing council, suspected India's role in the sub-standard umpiring, leading to Pakistan's defeat against New Zealand.

"Definitely, it is clear that India were miffed at not qualifying for the semi-finals after Pakistan lost to Australia and they took their revenge in their own way. They influenced the umpires to favour New Zealand," Shah told reporters.

Australian umpire Simon Taufel had wrongly adjudged Umar Akmal leg-before-wicket at a crucial stage of the match and even admitted to the mistake and apologised later. Shah said he would not refrain from pressing the PCB to see that the International Cricket Council impose at least a one-year ban on Taufel. "Taufel must be banned. He was against Pakistan," Shah fumed.

The minister, however, dismissed allegations by the Chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports Jamshed Khan Dasti that Pakistan had deliberately lost the matches to Australia and New Zealand for ulterior motives.

"Nothing of that sort happened in South Africa. We fought till the end against Australia and against New Zealand we got some very bad decisions," he said.

Wasim Bari, the chief operating officer of the board also said that he was surprised at Dasti's statement made to some television channels on Monday night.

"All I can say that the Champions Trophy is an ICC and it is their property and they organize it so we don't want to comment on something which is not our territory," Bari said.

He said that the ICC anti-corruption and security unit kept a close watch on the tournament and it was their responsibility to ensure it was clean.

"Since the ACSU is there to ensure there is no corruption in any match we are not in a position to make any comments on the allegations by Dasti," he said

 

[Bhushan]

Parliamentarian accuses Pakistan of throwing games

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani parliamentarian has accused the national cricket team of deliberately losing matches in this month's Champions Trophy tournament and has demanded an explanation from its coach, captain and chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board.

‘We will be meeting with them on Oct. 13 as we feel the team deliberately lost the games against Australia and New Zealand,’ Jamshed Dasti, chairman Standing Committee on Sports in the Pakistan Lower House, told the Associated Press on Tuesday.

Pakistan was defeated by Australia in the last group match last week before losing to New Zealand in the semifinal.

‘They lost to Australia just to keep India out of the tournament,’ Dasti said.

Australia might not have qualified for the semifinal had Pakistan won against the defending champion and India could have advanced had they defeated West Indies by a big margin.

‘There are lots of doubts on the performance of the team and we feel it has to be cleared by the PCB officials and the team management,’ Dasti said.

‘The way we lost in the semifinal, it has left the whole nation disappointed and the PCB has to give answers.’

Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam and captain Younis Khan returned home Monday, while PCB chairman Ijaz Butt remained in South Africa to attend International Cricket Council meetings.

It is not the first time that the parliamentary committee has summoned PCB officials, however the committee has only the power to give recommendations to the prime minister and the president.

‘This time I can assure you that we will make sure our recommendations be given due considerations,’ Dasti said.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is the patron-in-chief of the PCB.

 

[PostColonial]

Wow....this is even better than the many fake (joke) threads opened here which accused India of blaming Pakistan for various silly things.

Fact is stranger than fiction, eh?

 

[Bhushan]

Dasti, give us a break!

Here we go again. It has barely been 24 hours since Younis Khan and some other members of the Pakistan cricket team landed back home, and the barbs are flying already. The Pakistan team is known to provide action even in inaction, and sometimes it’s actually entertaining. But there comes a point when you feel that enough is enough. Accusations made by Jamshed Dasti, chairman of the Standing Committee on Sports in the Senate are exactly such an instance.

While it was all fun and games reading reports in the Indian media of a possible case of match-fixing by the Pakistani team that led to India’s ouster from the Champions Trophy, Dasti’s accusation that the Pakistani team deliberately lost the group match against Australia and the semi-final against New Zealand are a slap in the face of all the fans of the national team. It is a shame because cynical fans now have a reason to fuel their disgust with and that too out of something that sounds completely absurd.

While no one can stop the issue from spiralling out of control now, and ultimately tarnish the image of the nation once again, it is interesting to focus on the credentials of Mr. Jamshed Dasti. Mr. Dasti is the same guy who absolved Pakistan Hockey Federation Secretary Asif Bajwa of human trafficking charges amid raised-eye brows. As the chairman of the Standing Committee on Sports he was also responsible for overlooking the ‘Lahore Attack’ probe and setting the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board straight after allegations of mismanagement. Both instances have produced no fruitful outcomes. He has further been accused of threatening the gang-rape victim Mukhtar Mai to withdraw her case and also of trying to takeover the District Education Office in Muzzafargarh (video of which is posted on YouTube and contains abusive language).

Now let’s look at the supposed ‘incidents’ that show the Pakistani team deliberate attempts of throwing a game.

Younis Khan’s catch: Ok so he shouldn’t have placed himself at such a crucial position at such a crucial stage in the match but let’s be honest, it was a clear case of being overconfident that led to him spilling that catch. But does that mean Brendon McCullum, who was under Cameron White’s top-edged pull for ages before dropping what was a simple catch for a man in gloves, also had mischievous intentions?

‘They lost to Australia just to keep India out of the tournament,’ Dasti has accused. Can the Pakistan team be really so good that they toyed with the Australians, put them under the sword and then decided to throw the final dice on the LAST ball of the game? Wow, anyone who has played even gully cricket could tell that Umar Gul had bent his back on the final delivery, and it was a perfect finish until Kamran Akmal’s throw failed to reach the non-strikers end before Nathan Hauritz could make his ground. And let us suppose if the Pakistan team was in fact so brilliant that it could pull the Australians on a string and pretend to be mediocre in certain instances, then wow…what a team!

As far as the New Zealand game is concerned, true it was sad sailing by the Pakistani batsmen. But were Umar Akmal and umpire Simon Taufel in cahoots? Did Umar tell Taufel precisely when he will play a ball from the full-face of his bat on to his pad for to be adjudged LBW and make it seem like Pakistan ‘really’ suffered at the hands of bad umpiring? If the Pakistani batsmen played lethargic cricket, what were the New Zealanders doing on such a flat track, albeit against a much better bowling line-up?

It’s not surprising to see accusations being hurled at Pakistan again. Would it have been different if Younis Khan sat out due to his injury (remember Wasim Akram World Cup 1996 against India)? Neither is it baffling to see foreign media agencies picking up on a sentimental remark made by a person who speaks before thinking (he is reported to have told Ijaz Butt to retire because he had done ‘10-year’s overtime’). How many ex-cricketers and otherwise insignificant politicians will take up our airspace? Please Dasti, give it a break!

As I post this blog, Mr. Dasti is being interviewed by a local television channel regarding his outburst. When the interviewer asks the senator to explain his accusations, Mr. Dasti conveniently distances himself from the remarks and goes to say, ‘we will ensure that these accusations are interrogated thoroughly…’

‘But Dasti sahib, you are one who accused the team, says the baffled interviewer, to which Mr. Dasti replies, ‘these accusations have come to our notice and as the head of the Standing Committee on Sports it is my responsibility to find out the truth,’ after which, the interviewer gave up. Seriously.

Taimur Sikander is a sports editor at Dawn.com.

Read the comments below the article. Interesting!!!