The Pakistan match-fixing saga took a turn for the worst on Monday with a report that tainted Test captain Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif forced pace bowler Mohammad Amir into spot-fixing. Amir has reportedly revealed to the PCB that he was compelled by Butt to bowl deliberate no-balls as revealed by the British tabloid, News of the World in its sting operation during Pakistan’s recently concluded tour of England.
Amir said he is a victim of senior power lobby in the team.
The revelation may force the investigating agency, Scotland Yard, to summon Amir once again to help in the investigation. The tainted trio of Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Amir has already been questioned by police once in London, along with a fourth suspect Wahab Riaz.
Meanwhile, Quite a few former Test captains, and even Pakistan’s former President, Pervez Musharraf, have urged the ICC to show leniency towards Aamir, all of 18. But chief selector, Mohsin Khan said that he didn’t agree with the viewpoint that Amir should be shown leniency because of his age.
“I don’t buy this argument because if you can do something wrong at 18, you can keep on doing it later as well. If these three players are found guilty they should be punished, including Amir,” Mohsin said.
The chief selector insisted that no cricketer was indispensable and there should be no compromise on discipline and commitment towards your team and country.
“Amir must be punished if he is guilty. I just hope that that these three are eventually cleared because they have already damaged the reputaion of Pakistan cricket and the country,” Mohsin said.
Correspondent with the Dawn News, Emad Hamid termed the report as speculation and baseless and said if Amir is claiming that Butt had lured him into spot-fixing then they would not have gone together to meet PCB chief Ijaz Butt this morning.
PCB legal adviser, Taffazul Rizvi, too, did not give any credence to the report saying all the three players are innoncent as said on day one.
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