The Pakistan Cricket Board has suspended fast bowler Mohammad Irfan for a year and fined Rs1 million after failing to disclose two approaches made by bookmakers during this year’s Pakistan Super League (PSL).
Muhammad Irfan admitted the charges leveled against him by anti-corruption unit of PCB. PCB also suspended central contract with Irfan and disclosed that board will review the suspension after six months and his contract may be restored depending on his behavior. Irfan’s fault was not reporting the communication with bookies to the authorities, which carries a punishment of at least six months. He is tallest international player and has played four tests, 60 one-day internationals and 20 Twenty20 internationals for Pakistan. Muhammad Irfan is among one of the four players, who have been suspended by PCB and they were being investigated for alleged involvement in spot fixing in the second edition of PSL. While Muhammad Irfan has accepted his fault, Sharjeel khan, Shazaib Hassan and Khalid Latif have denied the charges PCB leveled against them and now they are being further investigated.
Many are criticizing PCB that after whole embarrassing episode of Amir, Salman and Asif, strict measures should have been adopted that such incident could have never taken place again. But we should appreciate timely action of PCB to keep PSL safe from the shadows of bookies. Cricketing body showed seriousness to deal the issue of alleged spot fixing with iron hands, effective coordination of PCB with the International Cricket Council Anti-Corruption and Security Unity proved pivotal to find immoral plans of match fixers. Despite spot fixing scandal, PCB managed to organize second edition of PSL in an excellent manner and on the other side alleged tainted players were sidelined during the tournament to make it clear that match fixing of any sort would not be tolerated.
Captain of Pakistan Test cricket team Misbah ul Haq recently said that after embarrassing incident of spot fixing in 2010, it took seven years to restore positive image of Pakistan cricket at international level which has been once again affected after PSL scandal. But Prompt action of PCB did the damage control work, problem however has not disappeared and PCB needs to do more. PCB needs to make sure transparent inquiry regarding role of rest of the alleged players, by doing so we can protect the game and our country from further humiliation.
PCB deserves commendation for suspending the tainted players.
Unfinished work
According to a new report of HRW in Pakistan around 25 million children are out of schools. More importantly, the report presents a sorry picture of education initiatives in the country as hundreds of schools which were destroyed by militants, particularly in northern areas, are still damaged. Children are being forced to take their classes in the destroyed schools. It is pertinent to mention here that hundred of schools, mostly of girls, were destroyed by militants on the basis of ideological differences. Now peace has been restored and writ of state has been established in those areas, government needs to reconstruct the damaged school buildings on priority basis.
