Pakistan minister warns team against fixing, draws flak

Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik has warned his country’s cricket team against indulging in any kind of match-fixing during the India-Pakistan World Cup semifinal on Mar 30, but his remark was blasted by various groups, including cricket icon Imran Khan.

India and Pakistan are facing off each other for a high-voltage encounter on Mar 30 in Mohali while cricket diplomacy between the two suspicious neighbours will see the prime ministers of both the countries attending the match to each each other’s nation.

Rehman Malik repotedly told Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi that if there is any such allegation, the matter would be strongly dealt with.

“We cannot take chances after London. The team should focus only on cricket only, go to bed on time, practise well,” Malik told reporters in Karachi.

Malik said the team is under surveillance.

?I should not have revealed but we have put them under strict surveillance, like who are the people meeting our players, with whom they are talking by telephone,? he said.

“I think the current team is clean and they will dedicate a victory to Pakistan. But it should be taken in the spirit of a game,” Malik said.

The remarks of Malik has been criticized by various groups instantly.

Now in India, Imran Khan said his concern is not the team and went on to say sarcastically: “I will watch Rehman Malik more than the cricket team.”

Khan said Malik himself was escaping justice.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah even tweeted to say: “If I was in the Pak Cricket team I’d tell the Interior Minister just where to keep his advise/warning. Which is to himself or at least not in the public domain like this.”

“It’s a sad day for cricket in Pakistan when a team has to be publicly warned by their Interior Minister not to fix the semi-final match,” he said.

The Pakistan team was earlier tainted by one of the biggest fixing allegations that saw three of its key players facing ICC ban.

The Pakistan cricket spot-fixing controversy exploded after the News of the World in the UK released videos of the Pakistani cricket team’s tour of England when players Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir and Salman Butt had allegedly accepted bribes from bookmaker Mazhar Majeed to purposely under-perform at certain points at a Test match at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London.

News of the World in a sting operation video-taped Mazhar Majeed accepting money and informed the reporters that fast bowlers Asif and Amir would deliberately bowl no-balls at specific points in an over ? information which could be used by gamblers to make wagers with inside information.

The process is known as spot-fixing, compared with match fixing which predetermines a match result.

The three players were suspended from all forms of cricket for terms of five to ten years.