OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 6.30pm.
PAKISTANI Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has ordered a probe into allegations of match fixing against the national cricket team which lost to Australia in the World Cup final.
Sharif’s Ehtesab (Accountability) Bureau has undertaken inquiries against Pakistan’s players after their humiliating defeat amid rumours the side staged a fixed final, the official Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said late on Friday. Australia defeated Pakistan by eight wickets in the final on June 20.
The agency quoted an unnamed bureau official as saying some of the players “went overboard in merrymaking” during the course of the World Cup in England, raising suspicions of a “deliberate surrender,” by the Pakistani team in the final.
“We will call all the players and officials separately for them to present their side of the story,” he was quoted as saying. The bureau will prepare a report after completing its investigations which will be presented to President Muhammad Rafiq Tarar, who is also the Patron-in-Chief of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), for necessary action, he added.
The news agency quoted sources as saying authorities had referred the case to the bureau after intelligence agencies submitted concrete evidence of “indecent behaviour” by some cricketers. The team’s defeat triggered protests by angry Pakistani fans. The fans burned effigies of skipper Wasim Akram and dubbed the star players traitors and gamblers.
Nine team members returned home Wednesday to face hundreds of angry fans at Karachi airport who pelted them with rotten eggs. Several players had to be rescued by special police commandos.–AFP