PCB official's denial

By Rizwan Ehsan Ali

ISLAMABAD, APRIL 25. An official of the Pakistan Cricket Board denied on Tuesday that the game's governing body has asked the PCB to submit a much-delayed report on match-fixing to a special meeting of the International Cricket Council in London next week.

Yawar Saeed, Director Operations, PCB, told The Hindu that the PCB has not received any instructions from the ICC president Jagmohan Dalmiya to submit Justice Malik Muhammad Qayyum's findings.

Local media reported on Tuesday that Dalmiya has asked the PCB officials to bring the report with them for consideration during the meeting. ``How can we take the report with us?'' asked Yawar, who is going to represent Pakistan in the ICC meeting. ``It (report) is not with us'' he said.

Justice Qayyum submitted his report to the Ministry of Sports in October 1998 after questioning more than 75 witnesses, which included former and current Test players, bookmakers, officials and journalists.

The ministry was supposed to forward the report to the patron of the PCB, President Rafiq Tarar. However, the officials of the Presidency also denied last week that they received any such report.

Justice Qayyum had said last week that he was surprised that his report was yet to be made public. He said that he was convinced that some of the Pakistan players were involved in fixing matches and deliberately threw a few games. ``I have recommended even life bans for some Pakistan players'' Justice Qayyum said, without naming the players.

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