PCB refutes speculation over Justice Qayyum report’s perceived rejection

[Zeeraq]

Statement from PCB:

Lahore, October 30 - The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) strongly rejects the speculation over the Board’s perceived ‘rejection’ of the Justice Qayyum report on match-fixing.

The work of Justice Qayyum is acknowledged and appreciated by PCB and there is no truth in the perception created by a few media publications that the report has been dismissed by the PCB.

The Qayyum commission report did not bar Mr. Wasim Akram from working for the betterment of cricket and for the PCB, the former captain has since his retirement established a reputation as a cricket commentator, coach and mentor all around the world and is widely acknowledged as a legend of the game, he has also worked on multiple occasions with the PCB and other Boards especially in Fast Bowling camps in Pakistan.

Cricket Committee:

The cricket committee is a recommendatory body empowered to make recommendations to the PCB on various aspects of the game. All committee members including Wasim have vowed to work together.

The appointment of the cricket committee is aimed at improving the standard of the game at various levels. The aim of PCB is to benefit from the vast experience of former cricketers in managing the game and Wasim - being an ICC Hall of Famer - has the requisite expertise to help Pakistan Cricket in its path to improvement.

Meanwhile, the PCB maintains a zero-tolerance policy on corruption and would continue to stay vigilant through its Anti-Corruption Department at all levels of the game, both with players and officials.

 

[Abdullah719]

And MHK today went on another TV show and said that he was convinced by Mani that the Qayyum Report "lacks authenticity"...

Not exactly thrilled with this new administration so far.

 

[Abdullah719]

Justice Qayyum refutes Mani’s assertion regarding his match-fixing report

Former Lahore High Court (LHC) chief justice Malik Qayyum on Tuesday rejected the assertion of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ehsan Mani regarding his report on match-fixing, according to a media reports.

In an interview with local media, Justice (r) Qayyum said that the report compiled by him regarding the 1990s match-fixing allegations was not incomplete.

He said parts of the report were implemented as players like Saleem Malik, Wasim Akram and others faced bans and fines. However, at some point, the suggestions were neglected, he continued.

It is to be mentioned here that the justice had recommended imposing a lifetime ban on Saleem Malik and Atta-ur-Rehman as they were involved in match-fixing while he had also suggested removing Wasim Akram as captain of the team.

He had also urged to not give any duty to Mushtaq Ahmed in the board.

Earlier during a press conference, PCB chief Mani was questioned about the connection between inclusion of Wasim Akram in a committee formed to oversee the state of all aspects of Pakistan cricket and the report of Justice Qayyum.

In a response, Mani said, “Mr Qayuum made some allegations, then said he would provide details of the allegations later.”

“No one has ever seen those details since. Many people named in the report were acquitted thereafter and have gone on to coach around the world. Those countries who used these players services undertook complete inquiries but found nothing that perturbed them,” he added.

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/20...-assertion-regarding-his-match-fixing-report/

 

[Savak]

Lol if the report indeed lacks authenticity, then why was Salim Malik banned in the first place?

Honestly speaking, a lot of the players from the 90's were very lucky to get away.

 

[Destroyer88]

Issue is wasim akram was let off
.. why?? Because justice qayyum was a fan of akram but but akram.could not hold any position in the team as a cpt or a supervisory role in the PCB. Does this even make sense. To be honest you have to assess the judgement of qayyum's report. A lot of the narratives were a mere hearsay. Not saying that akram was innocent but then telling the world akram was fixer but cant implicate him because we have no proof doesnt seem much authentic. I think mani is right to ask the journalists if they even read the qayyum report.

 

[Markhor]

Ehsan Mani is misrepresenting what Qayyum said. He never MADE allegations against anyone nor did he say he'd provide details later - his job was to investigate the allegations. That's not to say the Qayyum Report wasn't a flawed piece of work. The biggest mistakes the PCB made were a) appointing Justice Qayyum whose own integrity is questionable, b) failing to give Qayyum the resources to conduct a thorough investigation and c) failing to implement even the mild recommendations that Qayyum produced.

Except for one legal adviser, Qayyum was alone with no police or detectives at his disposal. No telephone recordings were scrutinised and Qayyum himself complained he had insufficient resources. Is it any surprise he was unable to produce sufficient evidence against many of the accused ?

However, the Qayyum report is the best we could've got given the circumstances at the time and the recommendations WERE of merit. Now is Wasim Akram a better candidate for the post than the tried and tested names like Abdul Qadir, Intikhab Alam, Haroon Rasheed, Iqbal Qasim etc ? Probably yes. I'd much rather have Wasim Akram oversee domestic cricket than Shakeel Shaikh.

But when you've been appointed by a Prime Minister who was elected on an anti-corruption platform, and are making promises to clean up the PCB - you should be consistent and be wary of appointing someone to a key post despite a history of corruption allegations that he got off on because the Justice had a "soft spot" for him as a bowler. Wasim is a very jovial and likeable television personality now but he played a major role in the toxicity of the dressing room in the 1990s and was never held to account.

 

[Blistering Barnacle]

Issue is wasim akram was let off
.. why?? Because justice qayyum was a fan of akram but but akram.could not hold any position in the team as a cpt or a supervisory role in the PCB. Does this even make sense. To be honest you have to assess the judgement of qayyum's report. A lot of the narratives were a mere hearsay. Not saying that akram was innocent but then telling the world akram was fixer but cant implicate him because we have no proof doesnt seem much authentic. I think mani is right to ask the journalists if they even read the qayyum report.

I agree with this.

I think it was a few years ago that justice Qayyum publicly admitted he was lenient on Wasim because he was a fan.

That brings his entire credibility as a justice into question.

He should have stuck by his guns and made the hard calls. No point saying later in life that he meant something else.

 

[Savak]

Is it possible for any inquiry committee to re-investiage these match fixing allegations which took place 20 plus years ago. Why weren't the bank statements, assets, wealth statements of the players in the 90's thoroughly investigated?

 

[SensiblePakFan]

so long ago, no one cares.

 

[MenInG]

https://www.bbc.com/urdu/sport-46027099

From Justice Qayyum:

As per this report, players were banned and fines imposed

If this report was incomplete, then why would players complete bans and pay fines?

I am not sure if Ehsan Mani has read this report, if he had, he would have not said that

These investigations happened at a court level but this was an enquiry commission and the findings of this committee were recommendations, and it was the responsibility of the PCB to implement these

Not Implementing my recommendations is one thing but the fact is that the report is being ignored

Implementing my recommendations was the PCB's responsibility but due to changes in Chairmen, some of them implemented [my recommendations] others did not and this is how its been

 

[Destroyer88]

This all happened in 1999. You could possibly argue that back in the time there wasnt enough facility to authenticate evidences such as the rashid latif tapes that were tapered with. As far as the enquiry goes. RL taped his colleagues who would discuss match fixing, during the tapes some of his own friends could have been implicated for match fixing such as saeed anwar and basit ali. Maybe RL wanted to give them the benefit of doubt since they were only involved in a match or two but wanted the main culprits such as malik, akram, ijaz to get life bans. Because the tapes got edited so that RL could save his mates thereby the evidence was not considered credible after forensic analysis

If you read the report, malik may have been involved in all of but the judgement was based on pure statements coming from explayers and his contemporaries i.e he was the common name mentioned. Somehow akram was as guilty as malik but as they say it 'uss ka din nahi tha' since ata ur rahman decided to change his statements. Even if you listen to him now, his colleagues have asked himas to why he changed his statement when he was sure that akram has pressured him into bowling badly. Honestly the guy speaks a lot of cringeworthy garbage

Comig back to the current scenario, it doesnt make much of a difference if akram holds officd or not. As bad as it may sound of having a corrupt guy in the office but akram for sure is technically minded. His input along with misbah may create a good partnership for pak in the coming days. Cant be so sure about MHK. but then he may prove useful. Point is qayyum was himself lenient on every player and only banned those players who weren't powerful (ata) or players with a finished career (malik). If on the basis of hearsay malik and ata were banned then. Then akram and mushtaq should have taken the chop too but no they didnt thereby this report is as useless as it can be. Anyway mushy and inzi have worked with pcb in the past so all this hoo haa with regards to akram doesnt make a case. Qayyum report was never taken seriously and sadly rightly so.

 

[Zahid87]

If anything, the Qayyum Commission was forced from above to go 'soft' on the players that were implicated.

If memory serves me correctly, there was an interview of Musharraf floating around, where he mentions the moment when Tauqir Zia informed him of the situation. Musharraf asked Zia whether it was possible to replace the existing team with another bunch on world class players - when Zia said no...then Musharraf said then you have to keep them then.

I think this is also mentioned in Peter Oborne's book on Pakistan Cricket, Wounded Tiger.

 

[Pete Rose]

Here to point out that the only reason this own goal has happened is because Mani sahab has appointed Mohsin Kham

 

[Last Monetarist]

Mani has lost all credibility with his statement on the authenticity of the Qayyum Report and is now attempting to backtrack. The horse has bolted sadly.

I am just staggered that this was all done in order to employ Mohsin Khan.

 

[Syed1]

Mani might have been a wrong selection as PCB chairman. IK has his hands full and probably doesn't even have a spare moment to see what's going on at the PCB but he needs to fire Mani and hire someone who is capable.