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Akram unperturbed about match-fixing report

The Pakistani cricket team, preparing for the Cola Cup Cricket tournament final in Sharjah on Friday, seems to be under intense mental pressure following a report in the Pakistani media that the one-man commission on match-fixing and betting allegations has recommended life bans and heavy fines on some leading players.

Skipper Wasim Akram tried to put up a brave front in the face of fresh allegations against the players while team manager Yawar Saeed described the news report as "speculative".

''It does not bother us,'' Wasim said when asked to comment on the report, in the leading Karachi daily, The News, that Justice Malik Mohammed Qayyum commission has recommended a life ban and heavy fines on Salim Malik and Mushtaq Ahmed.

The skipper told the local media: ''I have had a word with the board and my worries are over. The boys are looking forward to the Australian tour. As far as we are concerned, nothing has changed.''

He admitted that such reports affected the players. ''But then we don't take it seriously since nothing is official about it.''

According to the news report, the recommendations of the commission were based on its findings that the players were involved at some stage in the ''shady business of fixing matches and betting".

The news report said the commission also recommended that Akram should be stripped of captaincy and ''a close watch should be kept on his activities in future".

''Justice Qayyum, in his findings, also recommended that fines ranging from Rs 2,00,000 to Rs 5,00,000 be imposed on Wasim Akram, Ijaz Ahmed, Saeed Anwar and Inzamam-ul Haq, as he believes that enough material has come before the commission to convince it that they were not entirely straight in their statements given to it,'' the news report said.

Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed said: "I have seen the news report on the Internet and all I can say is that it is a speculative leak of recommendations."

Saeed, who will continue as manager of the team for the Australian tour, said: "I can't stop people from speculating. Since the report is not official, nothing has changed. The team (for Australia) will be selected on Thursday."

The Pakistan team manager said he was in constant touch with the board but at no point of time was the topic of justice Qayyum's recommendations discussed.

He clarified that Javed Zaman, a member of the Pakistan Cricket Board ad-hoc committee, and Col Naushad Ali, who is a director of cricket affairs in Pakistan, were running the board in the absence of Mujeebur Rehman, chairman of the cricket board ad-hoc committee, whose whereabouts are not known since the military take-over in the country.

He agreed that the players could get affected by speculative media reports. Despite all this, he said the morale of the team is high and the boys are looking forward to the Australian tour.

UNI