Umpire denies match-fixing

By Scyld Berry

RAWALPINDI, APRIL 25. Javed Akhtar's house is down a narrow side- street near the Cantonment area of Rawalpindi. The old British- built barracks are less than a mile away and target-practice there sends the odd bullet flying overhead.

The Pakistani umpire therefore knows what it is like when shots are fired in his direction and now he has spent the last 24 hours vigorously denying his involvement in the current match-fixing crisis.

Only one car at a time can squeeze down the dusty lane in the Allahabad colony leading to Akhtar's present house. A name plate on the metal gates next door announces that his neighbour is an army major. A cockerel scratches in the rubble and rubbish in between. Inside the gates to Akhtar's house stands his prize possession, a blue scooter manufactured in 1978.

He was at home for an interview with the Sunday Telegraph. We sat in his sitting-cum-dining-room which has to find space for a refrigerator and microwave as well. He has a few fans, not air conditioning, to mitigate the heat of the Punjab plains in summer.

Pride of place in the room goes to the medals and souvenirs of the 17 Tests he stood in, and photographs of his favourite colleagues, Dave Orchard of South Africa, Peter Willey and David Shepherd of England.

Now 59, Akhtar works as a sports officer for Khan Research Laboratories, the government-funded establishment which makes Pakistan's nuclear weapons, and which also runs a first class team who have produced the cricket equivalent, Shoaib Akhtar, no relation. He is one of the few umpires to have played Test cricket, albeit only one match as an off-spinner; but he is credited, as a coach, with having done more than anyone else to make Rawalpindi a cricket centre to compete with Karachi and Lahore.

Now his umpiring has been called into question, both in the Headingley Test of 1998 between England and South Africa, when he made questionable decisions against both sides, and England's World Cup qualifying match against India at Edgbaston the following year when England alone suffered his debatable decisions.

Ali Bacher, chief Executive of the South African board, alleged recently that an umpire was guilty if fixing a Test in England and that World Cup games were influenced. While Bacher did not name Akhtar, the Pakistani accepts that it is he who has been implicated. When I put the allegation to Akhtar that he received $ 100,000 from criminals, he laughed.

Then he said: ``It's affecting me badly. I have spent my whole life in the field and the allegations have really disappointed me. Fight? I must fight. '' Though still sturdily built, he has a crown of baldness and a whitening moustache. ``I think it is to divert attention from their cricketing cases that they have now in South Africa.'' A reasonable assessment.

The Edgbaston World Cup qualifier was, he says, the last match he stood in. What about the decision against Graham Thorpe, when Javagal Srinath bowled round the wicket and the ball was bound to go well down the leg-side, a decision which effectively eliminated England.

``If you lose concentration, that's the moment you make a mistake.'' He paused, and in any event he speaks very deliberately in English. ``I did see the replays and I feel that it is a doubtful decision.''

Pakistan subsequently appointed a younger umpire to fill their quota of two representatives of the ICC International Panel. Akhtar spent two years on it and was given two overseas Test; a large step in status and earnings for a Third World umpire.

In home Tests, he earned Rs.15,000 (just under 200 pounds). As an ICC umpire abroad, he received that fee and a bonus of 500 pounds per Test to bring him up towards the level of the First World umpires. His first Test was between South Africa and Sri Lanka; his second, and last, was at Headingley.

My decisions were correct

``The ball was just moving,'' he remembered. ``As far as I'm concerned I was watching each and every ball, fully determined and confident according to my ability. I'm sure my decisions were correct.''

Correct? He gave nine lbws at Headingley, of which at least two came when the ball was edged from bat into pad. ``After seeing the replays with magnifying glass you can see these things, but with naked eye it was difficult.

``Criticism is there after every match. One or two decisions are always there which can be criticised.''

Let's be straight about this though: he has had as bad a Test as any umpire had in England in modern times, and his decisions overall benefited the home side. But if there was a bookie's plot for England to win a seam-dominated match - and the series - the last batsman you would give out lbw cheaply after a big inside edge is Mike Atherton; which is what Akhtar did.

In his denials Akhtar said: ``When South Africa lost the Leeds Test, there was some noise on my competence as umpire and this is very common when a team loses. I officiated matches to the best of my competence and criticism is very common in cricket, umpires are blamed after a team loses.''

He remarked that he did not even have both storeys of the house to call home. He lives on the ground floor with a kitchen and two bedrooms besides the living room. He does not own the ground floor, renting it for the last three years from the owner who lives upstairs. It does not quite add up. A man of his age and middle class means, with a daughter who has mastered in psychology, and a son studying computer science, and whose book on cricket in Urdu had sold well, should be able to afford something permanent.

Then he tells me about his new home. ``I have a piece of land 15 kilometers away in a suburb of Rawalpindi.'' How big is it? ``I am starting to build a house 60ft by 90ft, smaller than this one. I thought to make my new house double-storey but that is impossible because of the cost. You have to kill yourself to save money.''

His new plot of land is in Dhamial, a new and rising but not affluent suburb on the road to Peshawar, with the odd factory mixed in among housing for the retired military. Even a small house will cost a minimum of the equivalent of 10,000 pounds. The truth here is as elusive as ever in Pakistan. There are many plots around - not least the house that Javed builds.

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