Aaquib
Javed S/o Chaudhary Abdul Jabbar
(Recorded
on 26th September, 1998)
In South
Africa Basit Ali and Rashid Latif announced their retirement as according
to them some players were involved in match-fixing and betting. They had
specifically accused Salim Malik, the then captain, of match-fixing. I
had received a telephonic call in 1994 from some anonymous person from
Sri Lanka asking me to contact Saleem Parvez, who was allegedly a bookmaker
and receive a sum of Rs 50 lakh and a vehicle from him. After the team
had returned, I had come to know that some of the players had taken vehicles
and at my persuasion two of them had returned. Out of these two, one was
Waqar Younus. I do not know others who might have taken cars. Hanif Kentbury,
a bookmaker from Karachi, came to South Africa when our team had been touring
there. He was seen mixing with the players. I had received a message, though
not direct, from Akram that so long as he was captain I would not play
for Pakistan. I did not play subsequently for Pakistan. I did not enquire
from Akram about this. Both I and Aamir Sohail had suggested during the
team meeting that players should take an oath on the holy Quran that they
would not indulge in betting and match-fixing. Dan Kiesel, doctor, attached
to the team is a very honest person and after the defeat of Pakistan at
Bangalore in the quarter-finals Intikhab Alam had suggested to him that
he should give statement that he was a party to the scandal. In my view
though I have no positive proof but there is match-fixing and betting prevalent
in the Pakistani team. Generally the players about whom it is stated they
are involved in match-fixing and betting are Malik and Akram. I don't know
anything about Ijaz.
