As the International Cricket Council's Anti-Corruption Unit's letters continue to rock the cricket establishment in Islamabad, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shaharyar Khan said the allegations pertaining to match-fixing against some of the national players are a matter of concern and the issue will be looked into.
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Meanwhile, former PCB chief Tauqir Zia sought to defend his stand of not taking any action against some players despite a warning by the Anti-Corruption Unit that they could have under-performed in a few matches.
Confirming that ACU director Lord Condon had voiced concern about some Pakistan players, based on intelligence reports in its correspondence last year, Zia, who resigned as the PCB chairman in December 2003, said the Board was hampered due to lack of evidence.
"Yes, the ACU did write to us... But on what basis could we take action? We had our doubts also. We also heard about things. Since no evidence was available, no action was taken," Zia was quoted as saying in the same newspaper.
Zia said the PCB even conducted its own inquiry but did not find any evidence against the players.
In fact, he said, the correspondence with ACU was a part of PCB's efforts to remain informed about the team and also to support the ICC's efforts to eliminate corruption from the game.
The confidential correspondence between the ACU and PCB quoted by 'The News' recently suggested the Pakistan team had remained the object of some serious concern by the anti-corruption sleuths of the ICC in 2001 and 2002.
In two letters, dated September 2001 and March 2003, sent by Lord Condon to the PCB, concerns were voiced over the movements of some Pakistan team members. The letters also contained allegations that the team under-performed in two one-day tournaments in 2002, in Morocco and Kenya.
Zia said he had inherited the match-fixing scandal and tried his best to ensure the Pakistan players were free of such allegations and not involved with corrupt elements.
The daily observed that the letters meant that as recently as September 2003 the spectre of match-fixing was still very much alive. It also referred to former captain Rashid Latif mentioning an offer was made to him to ask the team to under-perform in one of the matches in the home series against Bangladesh.
As captain of the team, Rashid had informed the Board about the offer in his captain's report, sent after the Bangladesh series.
Rashid had also written to the ICC after the NatWest series in England last August asking them to be careful about the new menace of 'fancy-fixing' taking place in international cricket where bookmakers and punters lay bets on events during the course of the match instead of fixing results.
