ISLAMABAD, Sep 22 (APP): Former Pakistan Skipper, Imran Khan has plead cricket leaders to defy calls to ban Pakistan after a summer of spot-fixing allegations threatened to make them the outsiders of the world game. “It is time we had a proper inquiry and put an end to this matter. These allegations have badly damaged our cricket image and our players,” said Imran, who captained his country at various stages between 1982 and 1992. South Africa and New Zealand, Pakistan’s next scheduled opponents, are thought to have reservations about facing them following the events of their tour of England, which concludes with today’s final NatWest Series game at The Rose Bowl in Southampton. Imran, Pakistan’s most famous cricketer, believe that an inquiry is necessary after an extremely damaging summer for the sport in his country.
“But in any form of illegal activity you cannot give collective punishment to a country and deprive millions of fans, more so because these are still allegations yet to be proven.” Despite his appeal for leniency from the International Cricket Council (ICC), Imran is angry with Ijaz Butt for his role in exacerbating a tense situation.
Earlier Butt claimed that members of the England team had taken huge amounts of money to throw the match at The Oval. “It was a wrong move by the PCB chairman; he should not have done this,” added Imran (right).
“It is not correct to assume that if our players are being accused of being involved in spot fixing, players of other countries might also be involved in the same thing.
However, an ICC spokesman has said that he knows nothing of this and with Pakistan’s performance in two matches already being examined, it is to be hoped that nothing untoward occurred. The chaos off the field has, remarkably, not affected Pakistan’s performances, as their victories at The Oval and Lord’s levelled the series at 2-2 and threatened England’s record of having won every series this summer – APP
