ICC sends Pak trio out of WC

Three Pakistani cricketers Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal and Danish Kaneria would not be playing the forthcoming world cup after the cricket regulatory authority, International Cricket Council (ICC), refused to clear them, Geo News reported Wednesday.

Pakistan Cricket Board has approached the ICC before constituting a pool of 30 players for the world cup.

The PCB would announce the provisional pool on 15th December.

China likely to be Pakistan's neutral venue for cricket

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is considering China as a neutral venue for its international cricket events as the foreign teams are not willing to visit Pakistan due to security threats, sources told Xinhua on Friday.

According to PCB sources, Pakistan’s former captain and legendary batsman Javed Miandad presented a written report suggesting the board management to take special steps to finalize China as a neutral venue for international cricket matches.

“We should take immediate and solid steps to decide this issue soon before the time passes away,” warned Miandad, PCB director and Pakistan’s cricket ambassador to China.

The future of cricket is very bright in China, a country with a big population, said Miandad, adding that Pakistan should help China technically to establish cricket infrastructure and new stadia. He also suggested sending a group of former players as a coaching team to China to train the Chinese youth.

Cricket is the most famous game in Pakistan but the countrymen could not have a single chance to watch any cricket match in their home grounds since March 2009. The foreign cricket teams refused to visit Pakistan after March 3, 2009 when some unknown terrorist ambushed the bus of Sri Lankan cricketers on their way to ground for a match in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore. Attackers tried to kidnap the bus but driver controlled the nerves and luckily drove away the bus from the site safely. At least eight people including six policemen were killed in cross firing. Besides many Pakistanis, seven Sri Lankan players were also injured in the attack. The Sri Lankan team canceled its tour and went back to Colombo on the very next available flight.

Pakistan was the co—host of the cricket world cup 2011 along with India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka but in the wake of the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team and refusal from teams, the International Cricket Council (ICC) decided to strip Pakistan of its hosting rights.

Pakistan was supposed to hold 14 matches, including one semi-final but now eight of Pakistan’s matches have been awarded to India, four to Sri Lanka and two to Bangladesh.

With this decision PCB lost the revenue of millions of dollars and also an opportunity to boost up cricket culture in the country.

Seeing all these matters and predicting future problems, PCB started to think on the lines to have a secure, reliable and permanent neutral venue.

Sources revealed that as a first attempt to work on these lines Pakistan would put its weight on the Chinese side on Dec. 12 in Dhaka where China would make a bid to host the 2012 Asia Cup in Guangzhou, the venue that hosted the first-ever Asian Games cricket tournament in November.

If China succeeds to get the hosting rights of the event, it will be the first major international cricket event in China. And Pakistani authorities said giving the Asian Cricket Cup hosting rights to China will make the rout clear to announce its neutral venue.

Syed Ashraful Haq, chief executive of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), also confirmed that the Chinese Cricket Association had “expressed its interest” in hosting the 2012 Asia Cup.

“If our ACC board agrees, China will have its first full-fledged, major international tournament,” Haq told Cricinfo, a famous cricket website.

The ACC board will meet on Dec. 12 in Dhaka to decide the venue for the Asia Cup among Guangzhou, Dhaka and either Dubai or Abu Dhabi.

“If you ask me where it should go, I don’t know. My board would have to decide but it would be good if it is played in a non-traditional place to enhance the profile of the place and to boost up cricket awareness,” Haq added.

ACC authorities will also consider taking cricket out of traditional venues to new markets or new areas.

Ijaz Butt, PCB chairman, praised the quality of grounds and facilities provided in the cricket stadium in China.

According to sources, Butt had been astonished by the quality of the ground and facilities provided in the cricket stadium in China and expressed his wish to make a venue for one of Pakistan’s offshore international games.

“PCB is planning to arrange its Test matches in first phase,” sources said.

T20 international cricket tournament in the Asian Games was held at the Guangdong University of Technology, where the ground has an 80-meter boundary and seven pitches which suits international standards.

Mazhar Majeed reveals four more names

Mazhar Majeed reveals four more names

Pakistan’s preparations for the World Cup were further jolted when Mazhar Majeed, the alleged bookmaker at the centre of the spot-fixing allegations, revealed names of four more players involved with him.

Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal, Wahab Riaz and Imran Farhat were named in a secretly-filmed video aired by a Geo News channel last night.

The video comprised Majeed boasting of connections with the four cricketers. This was after an earlier video, released by the News of The World, forced the International Cricket Council (ICC) to suspend Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif with Scotland Yard calling the trio in for questioning.

Kamran was overlooked for Pakistan’s recently-concluded series in the UAE and has, together with Farhat, been omitted from the Twenty20 and Test squad for New Zealand that was announced yesterday. Umar and Riaz, however, have been included by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

Majeed, after naming the four, denied having any links with Shahid Afridi, Younus Khan, Abdul Razzaq and a ‘religious’ Saeed Ajmal in the video.

The PCB has been under immense pressure from the ICC to set its house in order following the earlier allegations. A special ‘task team’ was handed the job of cleaning up Pakistani cricket; to devise and implement anti-corruption measures. They were to also have a new code of conduct to be signed by all players.

Zulqarnain loses another lawyer

Zulqarnain loses another lawyer

LONDON: Pakistan’s former wicket-keeper, Zulqarnain Haider, is falling short of supporters as he embarks further upon the path of truth and honesty.

Amid worries regarding threats to his family based in Lahore, Zulqarnain was dealt another dent on Monday when his lawyer, Natasha Malik, withdrew her support for the troubled wicket-keeper.

Zulqarnain, who decided to leave the national team in United Arab Emirates after taking Pakistan to an unlikely victory in the fourth One Day International against South Africa, is due to unveil the names of the players and officials in the country’s domestic cricket who are involved in the menace of match and spot fixing.

Earlier, Ansar Barni Welfare Trust also decided against taking case of Zulqarnain Haider.

Natasha Malik told British media the reasons why she decided to quit Zoly’s War on Match and Spot Fixing. She said that the wicket-keeper is adamant to numerous offers made by the Pakistan Cricket Board therefore she had to change her mind and give up her weight behind him.

Last week, Zoly said on his facebook page that he would soon reveal the names of those who have made huge bucks for selling the name of country and their teams.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) then decided to leave out former skipper Shoaib Malik, wicket-keeper-batsman Kamran Akmal, and Danish Kaneria owing to possible show of dismay by the International Cricket Council which is working with the PCB to root out the menace of corruption from the game.

It would be interesting to see which players, Zulqarnain would name sometime this week as this would open a new Pandora Box of rumours and speculations regarding level of corruption in Pakistan’s domestic cricket structure.