THERE was widespread shock amongst Pakistani fans on Friday as the Crown Prosecution Service laid charges against Mohammed Amir, Mohammed Asif, Salman Butt and their agent Mazhar Majeed. All four will be charged with conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments and also conspiracy to cheat. Their first court appearance has been set for March the 17th.
Osiris's Views
Most Pakistani fans were expecting the ICC to impose severe bans on the trio but were certainly not expecting criminal charges. While this news has taken us all by surprise I don't personally think that this is a bad thing. Corruption and cheating are a cancer not just in sport but in life as a whole and it must be eradicated at all cost. There seemed to be a mentality amongst some in Pakistani cricket that they could get away with such badmaashi this is a clear sign to any up and coming young cricketer that such behaviour will not be tolerated in the least.
In all honesty I have no sympathy for Mohammed Asif who has been involved in one scandal after another and Salman Butt who it is claimed masterminded the whole thing. It is so tragic since Salman Butt was an educated young cricketer...that also makes it all the more disgusting. If there is any semblance of sympathy then it must go to Mohammed Amir, who is only a young kid....who had the whole world at his feet and yet he's lost it all now. There is no doubt in my mind at least that Amir, being the young naive kid that he is was co-erced and perhaps even pushed to following his captains orders, it is nothing short of a tragedy.
However having said that, Amir had plenty of chances to come clean, firstly when he was questioned by Scotland Yard, secondly through various media appearances and thirdly at the two ICC trials. However on all occasions he stubbornly refused to admit his wrongdoing. He should have blown the whistle on the other two and Butt in particular, he should have pleaded his case of being led astray at a young age. Instead he stuck with Salman and in fact was pictured by the media together, out and about with Salman throughout the ICC hearings while Asif maintained his distance from the two.
So while I do feel that Amirs involvement is an absolute tragedy, he did have several chances to come clean, he chose not to avail of those. Therefore a court will now decide the guilt of all those charged and if found guilty they should in my view face the stiffest punishment, because cricket and in particular Pakistan does not need cheats.
The current Pakistan team need to ignore these going-ons, team Pakistan minus the fixers have gelled together admirably well, they are performing well as a unit and there seems to be a lot of patriotism in the team. We have already moved on from these three to a large extent and we need to do so even more. We may still be big underdogs for the world cup, but it is now more than ever that we need to show true Pakistani Jazba.
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