Will tainted players get away again?

The three Pakistani cricketers under the scanner for spot-fixing, captain Salman Butt and pacers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer, have reportedly admitted before the Scotland Yard inquiry that the British currency recovered from their hotel rooms was given to them by bookie Mazhar Majeed. The players were questioned by Scotland Yard in London before being released without charge.

The Pakistan TV channel Geo TV reported that the players, who were suspended on Friday by the International Cricket Council (ICC), have maintained that the money was given to them on account of sponsorship contracts that they had signed with different commercial organisations. The players also stated that Majeed was working as their agent to secure sponsorship deals and they did not know that he was a book-maker.

With the chances of a legal case against the trio looking slim, and the PCB and the ICC quite content to sit back and pass the responsibility for probing the charges on to the UK police, it doesn’t appear as though the cricketing establishment is keen to take this golden opportunity to clean up the game. For at the end of the day, responsibility of ensuring a fair game rests with the ICC, not the UK police.

Meanwhile, the ICC has maintained that it has all the evidence to nail the three Pakistan players suspended in spot-fixing. “Our chief investigation officer said yesterday (Friday) that there is enough evidence. The players have a case to answer,” ICC chief spokesman Colin Gibson told DNA. But he rejected reports that Scotland Yard will not charge the players. “Scotland Yard has never said that they don’t have evidence. They have also not said they can’t charge the players.”

Gibson, however, said  it would be tough to share the evidence with the police in the current case. “We are doing our investigation and gathering our own evidence. At this stage we are helping Scotland Yard. If they wish to share the evidence with us, that will be good. We are not sharing the information because the UK law requires some documents to be prepared and signed.”   

The ICC, however, refused to comment on the PCB’s warning that it would take the world body to court if it the three players proved innocent.

As per the ICC code of conduct, under which the players were suspended, the three will have 14 days to reply to the notice. The ICC will then form an independent tribunal, which, obviously, will not include a Pakistani, to decide on the case. “We cannot give a timeframe as to when the case will get resolved. It might take weeks or a few months,” the ICC official said.

Meanwhile the PCB’s legal advisor, Taffazul Rizvi, said his board will not hesitate to take ICC to court. “I want to make it clear that the PCB will consider legal action against the ICC and other bodies if our players are found innocent because we feel the ICC has bypassed some of it’s own procedures in suspending the players in this case,” said Rizvi.

He also emphasised that at the moment there was no criminal investigation going on against the three players, who were released without charge by the Scotland Yard after
questioning in London. “It is just a preliminary inquiry and nothing more. They are being questioned. No investigations have been held,” he added.

“There is a case going on over here with the Scotland Yard,” said PCB chairman Ijaz Butt. “This is only an allegation. There is still no charge or proof on that account. So, at this stage there will be no action taken.”

With the ICC already under attack from the Pakistani establishment for suspending the trio without a criminal case, and there being no chance of the prosecutors making a “conspiracy to defraud” charge stick — since no bets were placed on the three ‘sample’ no balls that had been spot-fixed — it won’t be surprising if the whole controversy is allowed to blow over while the rot in the system remains intact. And public memory being short, the Sharad Pawar-led ICC might well be hoping for a return to business as usual as soon as the issue dies down in the media.