England’s victory over Pakistan in the third one-day international in Sharjah last Tuesday is being investigated for corruption. Following an erratic performance by Pakistan it is understood that investigators from the ICC’s anti-corruption unit have requested data from international betting markets about irregular betting patterns. England won the match by six wickets after Pakistan collapsed from 132 for two to 208 all out, including three farcical run-outs. They then dropped three catches in the field and missed a stumping. Officials were tipped off after the toss in Sharjah that the illegal Indian betting market, worth billions of dollars per game, was expecting Pakistan to underperform.
It has also emerged that officers were warned about potential corruption before the series began. Rumours were rife among bookmakers in the country, and the ICC received intelligence that there could at least be an attempt to manipulate the betting odds in favour of syndicates who would be betting huge sums. Former England captain Michael Vaughan used his Twitter account to question Pakistan’s performance. Apart from match fixing allegation Pakistan’s performance was a complete dismay. While they are placed at number two in the Tests rankings, Pakistan trail at an embarrassingly low eighth place in ODIs. That doesn’t augur well for the 1992 world champions who almost didn’t qualify for next year’s ICC Champions Trophy in England and could be forced to go through the ignominy of playing the qualifying rounds for World Cup 2019. Pakistan need to change their game plan as far as limited-overs cricket is concerned. It seems our players have failed to keep up pace with the shorter formats of the game. The various professional leagues that have mushroomed since the rise of the IPL ODIs and T20 Internationals have evolved with an emphasis on power-hitting. While in the past we had many big-hitters, the current lot is below average when you compare it with the likes of today’s brightest batting stars of world cricket like South Africa’s AB de Villiers or Australia’s David Warner. Pakistani batsmen like Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad promised a lot but haven’t really delivered. The Dubai loss has aptly underlined the fact that Pakistan’s ODI team is a work in progress. The way our batsmen ran themselves out should also be a big cause for concern. In fact three run-outs in the crucial third ODI in Sharjah set tongues in the international cricket community wagging. There were even media reports which suggested that the ICC has launched an investigation into Pakistan’s defeat in that particular match. When it comes to corruption, Pakistan cricket doesn’t enjoy a good reputation which is why such a knee-jerk reaction to a series of bizarre dismissals is hardly surprising.
pk.shafaqna.com
