Pakistan cricket has two permanent misfortunes: one; its inconsistent cricket in ground, two; players alleged involvement in spot fixing.

A player like Wasim Akram, whose name always pops up in mind whenever great fast bowling is mentioned. His illustrious cricketing career spans over 19 years. An epitome of high-class fast bowling, having smooth run-up, effortless high arm action, killing pace, sharp swing, and a complete set of skills to defeat his opponents, he is dubbed as Sultan of Swing and is regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers in the history of the game, and perhaps the finest of all left-arm fast bowlers. He was the first bowler to reach the 500-wicket mark in ODI cricket. On 30 September 2009, Akram was one of five new members inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame .

Currently his name has popped up in new attire: not fast bowling but corruption, insincerity, and spot-fixing.  He is accused by Khalid Mehmood, the then chairman of PCB for offering money to Ata ur rahamn-a former Pakistani fast bowler -to underperform in a test match. Ata ur rehman himself has recently spoken up in an interview that Wasim Akram paid him 100,000 rupees to bowl badly in a one-day international against New Zealand in 1994. Akram also withdrew from the 1996 World Cup quarter-final against India five minutes before the start of the match claiming injury, a move which according to vice-captain Aamir Sohail was “fatal” to the outcome. Tampering with batting orders to influence the game was another accusation.  Khalid also said that Ata-ur-Rehman had submitted an affidavit to testify against Wasim but due to some pressure from teammates he stepped back from testifying. (a link of such affidavit is attached).

Costly Favouritism – The Qayyum Report

Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum, the High Court judge who headed the inquiry into allegations of match fixing in Pakistan, has admitted that his admiration for Wasim Akram as a cricketer might have caused him to be lenient in the punishment he delivered to the former captain in 2000.

Wasim was one of several Pakistani players implicated in the match-fixing scandals that rocked cricket at the turn of the new century. But unlike fellow Pakistan team-mates Saleem Malik and Ata-ur-Rahman, who received life bans from the game, Qayyum fined Wasim and recommended that he never be allowed to captain his country again.

But he stopped short of delivering a clear verdict that the all-rounder was involved in corruption or not. In his report tabled in 2000, the now retired judge said: “This commission feels that all is not well here and that Wasim Akram is not above board. He has not co-operated with the Commission. It is only by giving Wasim Akram the benefit of the doubt after Ata-ur-Rahman changed his testimony in suspicious circumstances that he has not been found guilty of match-fixing. He cannot be said to be above suspicion.”

Yet over five years after the report was released, and more than seven years after the inquiry began, Justice Qayyum said he had not wanted a “great cricketer” like Wasim to be banned.

“For Wasim I had some soft corner for him,” Qayyum was quoted as saying in an interview on cricinfo.com. “He was a very great player, a very great bowler and I was his fan, and therefore that thing did weigh with me. Two things – one, I didn’t want cricket deprived of his participation, and the other was that towards the end of his career… [I didn’t want him] banned or something like that. My idea was not to find people guilty and then punish them. It was more a case where I had to do something to put an end to the practice in future. What had happened had happened. You couldn’t turn the clock back but you had to make sure they wouldn’t repeat what they were doing.”

Qayyum also rued the fact that his investigation into questionable games at the 1999 World Cup in England was blocked. The most controversial match was between Pakistan and Bangladesh in Northampton. Wasim was Pakistan captain at the time and his side lost by 62 runs. The result helped Bangladesh gain full Test status several years ahead of when they were expected to get it. “I was asked to investigate the World Cup also but when they knew the line which I was taking, they somehow got it stopped,” he said. “The subsequent inquiry that was set up is by Justice Bhandari. He exonerated all players

Is Akram in hot waters?

Akram also received staunch criticism from Aamir Sohail, who accuses him for insincerity.  Ammir in a recent interview said that Pakistan could have won four world cups, had Wasim been sincere to his cause. Aamir reported that Wasim made sure that Pakistan wins no world cup after ’92. He also insinuated that Wasim lobbied for captaincy before worldcup[s] and said that it must be investigated and the real culprits be unveiled.

Sarfraz Nawaz, the former Pakistani legendry bowler who is infamous for his often unexpected glitches with current and former Pakistani players has gone a step further and included Wasim’s family into his accusation by claiming that “Wasim Akram’s family was part of gambling mafia”.

Currently they are all allegations some of which are heard before as well, for example; it is often rumored that Wasim willingly pulled out against India in 1996 CWC quarterfinal. We also hear that Wasim had fixed the 1999 CWC final and that he opted to bat first on a green wicket because of that. But all of these have the same status like CWC 2011 semifinal against India that many, among us, believe was fixed and Pakistan was doctored to loose.

Let’s wait for what Wasim Akram has to say about all these allegations against his name. Further development will be reported as soon any progress is made.