Pakistan ball-tampering claims admitted (11 October 1998)
CONFIRMATION that ball-tampering took place on Pakistan's 1996 tour of England has come from a former chairman of the Pakistan cricket board
11-Oct-1998
11 October 1998
Pakistan ball-tampering claims admitted
By Peter Deeley
CONFIRMATION that ball-tampering took place on Pakistan's 1996
tour of England has come from a former chairman of the Pakistan
cricket board.
Transcripts supplied by the High Court in Lahore of previously
unpublished evidence from Javed Burki, a one-time Pakistani Test
captain and chief selector, to the judicial commission
investigating allegations of match-fixing and betting bears out
what has always been been suspected but never before officially
admitted. His deposition is mainly about suspicions that games
were rigged and large sums bet by players. But at one point he
says: "Ball-tampering also took place during the [1996] tour."
It was after the limited-overs international at Lord's that the
umpires impounded the old ball and replaced it with another while
Pakistan were bowling.
Burki was at Old Trafford for another one-day game in the same
series and in his evidence said: "The English team put on 100
runs in the first 10 overs and it was only due to loose
deliveries bowled deliberately by Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis."
Wasim, who, along with Salim Malik and Ijaz Ahmed, has denied
accusations of fixing and betting - illegal under Islamic law -
was Pakistan captain on that tour. He said England won the series
because they were the stronger side.
Australia were 265 for eight in their second innings at the end
of the third day of a four-day match against a Rawalpindi select
team. The local side had hit 261 in reply to the Australians'
first-innings total of 355.
Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)