Thaindian News

By Omar Khalid
Karachi, Oct 6 (IANS) Pakistan’s parliamentary committee on sports has accused the cricket team of throwing away its Pool A match against Australia to knock old rivals India out of the eight-nation event.

The accusation came from Jamshed Dasti, the chief of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Sports. Dasti, a member of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has summoned Pakistan captain Younis Khan, coach Intikhab Alam for a meeting at the Parliament House in Islamabad Oct 13. Ijaz Butt, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, has also been asked to attend the meeting.

Dasti said the committee is also suspicious about Pakistan’s semifinal loss to New Zealand, saying that the match could also have been fixed.

“We will be meeting them on October 13 as we feel the team appeared to have lost the matches deliberately against Australia and New Zealand,” said the outspoken Dasti.

Pakistan lost to Australia on the last ball of a low-scoring encounter– a result that knocked India out of the Champions Trophy. The Pakistanis went on to suffer a shock defeat against a weakened New Zealand side that was without a number of key players because of injuries.

“Our team lost to Australia just to keep India out of the tournament,” Dasti said.

“There are many doubts on the performance of the team and we feel it has to be cleared by the PCB officials and the team management,” Dasti said in an interview.

“The way we lost in the semifinal, it has left the whole nation disappointed and the PCB has to give answers.”

Pakistan’s cricket chiefs and the national team have come under constant criticism from parliamentary committees in the past but so far nothing has happened on the recommendations of those committees.

Earlier this year, Senate’s standing committee on sports recommended for the removal of Butt as PCB chief and asked the government to appoint a competent person for the job. However, that advise went unheeded by the Board’s chief patron - President Asif Ali Zardari.

However, Dasti made it clear that this time their recommendations will get due consideration. “This time I can assure you that we will make sure that our recommendations be given due considerations,” he said.

Meanwhile, Board sources have ruled out any foul play from players in the Champions Trophy.

According to the sources, top PCB officials are instead blaming poor umpiring for the team’s defeat against New Zealand. Some crucial decisions did go against Pakistan in the match and the team management and some Board officials believe it was the reason behind Pakistan’s defeat in the semifinals.