PCB IRKED OVER CRICKET AUSTRALIA CEO JAMES SUTHERLAND'S COMMENTS

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) to take strong note of Cricket Australia (CA) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) James Sutherland's comments, in which he said, Pakistan was not doing enough to prevent spot-fixing in the game.

According to sources, PCB officials have complained to the ICC against Sutherland’s negative comments. He added that such bad comments undermine the impression of Pakistan cricket in the world.

The PCB official stated, “Sutherland is the serving chief executive of Cricket Australia and basically his statement is a violation of the ICC member board`s code”.

Few days back, the ICC Chief Sutherland stated that the spot-fixing in England would not have happened if Pakistan cricket had followed the measures recommended in the Justice Qayyum report.

Sutherland said that PCB should have implemented the recommendations of Qayyum Report, so that no such corruption could be possible in Pakistan cricket.

However, he added that the board has failed to follow the report and hence faced corruption such as spot-fixing in England’s tour last year.

Rather surprisingly, PCB found the backing of former India spinner, Bishen Singh Bedi, who also thought Sutherland's statement was uncalled for.

The former Indian spinner expressed, “I think it is time there was a common front against such things. Australia, England and other western boards have to realize that they cannot make such statements and maintain their holier than thou attitude”.

PCB officials further added that the matter will be taken up in ICC's next meeting in Dubai, as the Board was hurt by Sutherland's statement.  

Spot-fixing is a very serious offence, which can be found in any form of cricket. Pakistan faced controversies regarding spot-fixing during their England tour of 2010, when Pakistani players Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir, and, Mohammad Asif, were found guilty for their involvement in spot-fixing during a Test match at Lord’s. They have been banned by the ICC for at least five years from all forms of cricket.

Although many experts are of the opinion that corruption from cricket cannot be eliminated completely, yet the ICC should take maximum steps to ensure that it does not affect the game to a large extent.

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Australia says implementation of Qayyum report would have avoided spot-fixing fiasco

Cricket Australia Chief, James Sutherland, has said that the spot-fixing fiasco, which happened in England in August 2010, could have been avoided had the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) taken steps to implement the proposals of the Qayyum Report of the 1990s.
According to media reports, Sutherland stated, “I would have big question marks about whether those things would have happened last year if those recommendations had been fully implemented.”
Sutherland said that he believes that if the recommendations of the Qayyum report were implemented in letter and spirit by the PCB, the spot-fixing scandal of 2010 would not have occurred. He also said that Cricket Australia had implemented suggestions by the Queens Counsel Rob O'Regan.
The former Aussie cricketer said, “Every single recommendation in his report has been implemented and continues to be implemented today. From a Cricket Australia perspective, we do what we can, but one of my concerns is that everyone around the world needs to do that for the integrity of the contest to remain clean.”
Cricket Australia official also said that the Australian cricket team’s processes are working well and the team immediately informs the management if a suspicious individual or deal as been offered to the players. However, the entire CA is making sure that no corruption like match-fixing should take place in the team.
He says players of Under-17 level and above are enlightened about dangers of interacting with people around their hotel lobbies and elsewhere. He said that the CA has set examples for others to follow in cases of betting, match fixing, corruption by employing life time bans.
The Qayyum Report in 1998 was created by the retired Supreme Court Judge Malik Mohammad Qayyum. He was appointed by the PCB to examine the corruption taking place in the cricketing circles of Pakistan. "It took me two long years and I summoned some 52 players and officials, who all accepted match-fixing existed in cricket”, the retired judge said in the report.
The commission suggested a few names of former cricketers that they should be investigated properly and should not be given any jobs in the Pakistan Cricket Board. The report also stated that properties, assets of all the players should also be examined annually. However, all such suggestions remain unimplemented.

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