BCCI treasurer questions Afridi's 2010 conduct
New Delhi, May 5 - BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry has pulled up former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi for not reporting the 2010 spot-fixing matter to ICC's Anti-Corruption Unit despite getting
Afridi said he become aware of suspicious conversations between then player agent Majeed, who was at the centre of the scandal, and players who were eventually accused during the 2010 Asia Cup in Sri Lanka.
"I got hold of the original evidence in the racket -- phone messages that would eventually come into play against players involved in the spot-fixing controversy," he said. "When I took that evidence to the team management, what happened next didn't inspire much confidence in those tasked with managing and running the affairs of Pakistan's national cricket team."
"Before the Sri Lanka tour, Majeed and his family had joined the team during the championship. At one of the Sri Lankan beaches, Majeed's young son dropped his father's mobile phone in the water and it stopped working.
"Majeed gave the phone for repair to a shop whose owner was a 'friend of a friend'. While fixing the phone, the shop owner, when asked to retrieve the messages came across Majeed's messages to players of the Pakistan team. Though he shouldn't have seen what he did, it was that leak from him to my friend and a few others (whom I won't name) that looped me in on the scam."
Afridi elaborated how he tried to alert the Pakistan team officials about conversations, but no action was taken.
"When I received those messages back in Sri Lanka, I showed them to Waqar Younis, then coach of the team. Unfortunately, he didn't escalate the matter. Both Waqar and I thought it was something that would go away, something that wasn't as bad as it looked, just a dodgy conversation between players and Majeed, at worst. But the messages weren't harmless banter -- they were part of something larger, which the world would soon discover," the former Pakistan captain revealed.
IANS
Trending
