Pakistans banned fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, who has been the center of criticism for not reporting to his countrys cricket Board or the ICC about being approached with money offers to under perform, has said that he could not report it to the ICC because the offers to him were made in 1998 and 1999 when ICCs anti-corruption unit did not exist.
Karachi, Apr 11 : Pakistan's banned fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, who has been the center of criticism for not reporting to his country's cricket Board or the ICC about being approached with money offers to under perform, has said that he could not report it to the ICC because the offers to him were made in 1998 and 1999 when ICC's anti-corruption unit did not exist.
Around two week earlier, after being banned for five years, Shoaib had said in a TV interview that he was approached by bookies to under-perform in matches in South Africa and India in return of big amounts of money. He had said that in 2003 a person came to his room with money but he drove him away as he could not betray his team.
Following the revelation, ACSU official Alan Peacock met Shoaib and three other cricketers last week, but it is learnt that Shoaib played safe by shifting the year of the incidents from 2003 to 1998 and 1999.
"He told Peacock that offers were made to him in 1998 and 1999 and he didn't report it because the ICC had not set up its anti-corruption unit by then. The unit was established in 2000 after the match-fixing scandal hit world cricket with the banning of several top players for their involvement in the menace. Shoaib said the offers came in 1998 and 1999 when he toured South Africa and India respectively," the Dawn quoted a source privy to the meeting between Peacock and Pakistani cricketers as saying.
When Peacock reminded him that he had talked about an offer in 2003, Shoaib said since he was upset with the ban, he could have got his dates and facts wrong.
The ICC Code of Conduct states that any player who fails to report any approach to fix matches to his captain, team manager, board or ACSU is liable to be banned for one to five years.
ANI