Imran
Ahmed Khan Niazi S/o Ikram Ullah Khan
(Recorded
on 11th November, 1998)
I was captain
from 1982 to 1992 except for few occasions when I was unfit. During the
period I played cricket, one incident I should mention is that in India
while Asif Iqbal was captain there was some allegation that there was betting
on a Test. Asif Iqbal had declared the innings at a stage when Pakistan
had not scored more runs than India. There were rumours that it was a bet
on who would score more runs in the first innings. In 1989, during the
Australasia cup, Javed Miandad rang me up that four of our players have
been sold out. It was the final and whatever money we had won in the side
matches we made a bet of that on Pakistan winning and we won the match.
On another occasion one of the players levelled allegations against Miandad
while he was playing in the World Cup but that was not believable as no
single player can fix the match. As match-fixing involves guaranteeing
the result whosoever are the good players of the team must be implicated.
And, without the knowledge or consent of the captain no team can indulge
in match-fixing. I believe match-fixing has taken place as players have
made allegations, including the current captain (Sohail). Moreover, there
are statements made by members of the Australian team, and other Pakistani
players like Rashid Latif. In my opinion after I have left cricket there
has been match-fixing and betting. When I was working Intikhab Alam was
manager and I always found him to be a decent person. If he has stated
that there has been match-fixing, he should be believed. The match-fixing
as a matter of fact started from domestic cricket. In the United States
in 1919 during the baseball finals one match was fixed. The entire team
was banned forever and a fine was imposed with the result that no one dared
to indulge in such malpractice. In '94 when allegations of match-fixing
surfaced I went to the board which at that time was headed by Arif Abassi
and told him in the presence of Javed Burki that stern action should be
taken against the culprits even though other players might subsequently
lose matches. In my opinion expediency came into the way of the
administrators in imposing some punishment as at that time the Pakistan
team was very strong and they did not want to disrupt it. Stern action
must be taken against the culprits to save Pakistan cricket,
including bans for life and fines. Ata-ur-Rehman told me that he was paid
money by Akram to bowl badly. This was during the last one-day international
in New Zealand. Mudassar Nazar too told me that other players had informed
him that they had indulged in betting in two-three matches.
