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Match-fixing saga : Need to catch bigger culprits: Latif

LAHORE: Former Pakistan captain and whistle-blower on the match-fixing racket Rashid Latif has reacted cautiously to the West Indian batsman Marlon Samuels facing the two-year ban, saying the International Cricket Council (ICC) needed to net the big fish to eradicate corruption from the sport, reported a cricket website on Wednesday.

Samuels faces a two-year ban for violating the ICC Code of Conduct on match-fixing and gambling during the tour to India in January 2007. He is the first cricketer to face ban for match-fixing related offences since the ICC and its member boards carried out a sweeping inquiry into the fixing scandal in 2000 which led to life bans on three former captains – Hansie Cronje, Salim Malik and Mohammad Azharuddin – and fines and bans on other players. Latif, who played a key role in exposing the match fixing racket within Pakistan cricket, said the ICC and its member boards still needed to go after the big names. “So far, we have seen only players banned or fined for such offences. But never any of those people who were involved in spreading corruption in the sport,” he said. “Samuels is a prime example. They have banned him but what about the person who made contact with him and gave him money. Doesn’t the ICC have information about him?”

Latif claimed even when Malik and others were banned for life, the ICC and its member boards had preferred to cover up some big names to save the image of the sport as they perceived it. “I know of people who were allegedly involved in corruption but the authorities kept quiet. No big bookmaker has been arrested or charged as yet. While it is fine to ban players but this is not going to eradicate this menace completely from cricket,” Latif said. He said it was also useless to ban players once they were past their prime. “I myself have written to the ICC about how dummy match-fixing and fancy-fixing is going on. The ICC and its member boards and the anti-corruption unit needs to show more teeth to reign in more culprits who might still be active,” Latif said. The former captain said he was not in favour of lifting ban on any player. “Malik has appealed to the Supreme Court of Pakistan against his ban. That is his right and let the court decide, but I still believe there should be no concessions for players who indulged in any form of corruption.”

Reminded that Malik could be innocent and his ban could be overturned by the Supreme Court, Latif said if this happened it would prove that the authorities didn’t have strong enough case against him. Malik was banned and five other players fined by the Justice Malik Qayyum inquiry commission in 2000 after an 18-month long inquiry into the scandal. The Supreme Court has granted an appeal hearing to Malik, who was banned for his alleged involvement in the match-fixing controversy. Last year, the court sought an explanation from the Pakistan board of the law it had invoked to hand Malik a life ban from cricket. Malik had approached the Supreme Court in 2001 after the Lahore High Court rejected his appeal against the ban.