Imran adds fuel to match-fixing fire

MUMBAI, APRIL 25. Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan on Tuesday added fuel to fire by naming an Indian as the man who knew too much regarding fixing of the matches way back in 1977.

In an interview to Total-cricket.com website, Imran, who first came here to play a benefit match, identified the person as Raj Bagri, a Garware Club member, who told him about a few names of Indian players and also of other countries involved in fixing of the matches.

Describing Bagri as a suspicious character, Imran said Bagri was always at the Wankhede Stadium and once told him so and so was up to this and that. I kept thinking that this not possible and never took him seriously, he added.

Imran later noticed something shady in Pakistan's favourite hunting ground Sharjah in 1989 during the Australasia Cup. ``I was the captain and next day I immediately confronted my players and warned them that if any one was not playing up to his ability, he would never play again for Pakistan and he would also be jailed,'' Imran said.

Subsequently Imran found truth in it as an offer was made. He said, in Pakistan the first fixed match was between two banks.

Imran also suspected Australians in Sri Lanka in 1994. According to him there was something going on and later it was proved that Mark Waugh and Shane Warne took money from a bookie in return of match information. Apparently Pakistanis were not the only ones involved in that Singer Cup's hanky-panky, he alleges.

Imran, who led Pakistan to 1992 World Cup win, is now a disappointed person. He says his country has since then underperformed as the direct result of match fixing allegations which also forced the authorities to a witch hunt of sacking captains and leading to an unrest and till today Pakistan is under a cloud.

Imran also believed the malady was very much in India too because Bagri divulged a big name in Indian cricket of seventies. Imran did not reveal any names.

Imran admitted of ball tampering but blamed International Cricket Council for being toothless in taking firm hand in fixing scam. They have still continued with faulty laws about tampering, he adds.

He termed South African cricket chief executive's allegation that sub-continent was the hub of match rigging as pure rubbish and said Bacher's is a typical argument that will again absolve players.

Imran believed that pure greed was the reason for players falling for such temptations despite being rich. I can feel for someone who is struggling to feed his family but for these guys are rich and I do not feel sorry for them, he concluded. But he was sorry for cricket. If I am confused what about the public he asks.

He experienced the public's resentment in Pakistan where 90 per cent of fans believes that Pakistan threw the World Cup match against Bangladesh though to him it was not true.

He feared that many Test matches were also fixed. He also cited the example of Steve Waugh's all-conquering team. It won the World Cup, won ten Tests in a row and then lost a one-day contest in South Africa, which the public will not swallow.

He blamed the Australian Cricket Board for protecting guilty Mark Waugh and Shane Warne. The others are also lax and secretive such as Pakistan where the Qayyum report is not made public and in India the Justice Chandrachud report was practically a farce, he opined.

- UNI

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