Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Ramiz Raja recently made another stunning revelation after being removed from his post. Speaking in an interview with Samaa TV, Raja affirmed that he would have banned his former teammates Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis after their names were involved in a match-fixing scandal.
"I think no one should have had the chance of coming back to Pakistan cricket. If Wasim Akram’s name is in there, and he was censored for not cooperating, right? It was a borderline case. If I was the decision maker at the time, I would’ve banned them forever," Raja told Samaa TV.
"You brought them back to system. I wasn’t in power at the time. We were told to play with them and work with them, and that was it. No one knew how to tackle that. So many people were involved in that. I don’t know what the compulsion was," he added.
Raja's comments were regarding Justice Qayyum’s report on match-fixing that had the names of Wasim and Waqar mentioned numerous times.
"The evidence against Wasim Akram has not come up to the requisite level, primarily because of Ata-ur-Rehman’s perjuring himself. This Commission is willing to give him the benefit of doubt. However, there has been some evidence to cast doubt on his integrity. As such, this Commission recommends that he be removed from the captaincy of the Pakistan Cricket Team and a person of impeccable character be appointed. Moreover, he should be censured, kept under watch and his finances should be investigated," Justice Qayyum wrote in his report.
Following the report, Wasim was sacked as Pakistan's captain but continued to play cricket while Waqar coached the national team on two separate instances.
The match-fixing saga dates back to the 1990s when Ata-ur-Rehman accused Wasim and said that the skipper offered him Rs 3-4 lakh to 'fix' the game. Wasim was also accused of faking an injury in 1996 and using a mobile phone inside the dressing room.
