Malik claims PCB asked him to accept match-fixing charges

LAHORE: Former Pakistan batsman Salim Malik has stated that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) asked him to accept match-fixing charges to deceive International Cricket Council (ICC).

Talking to reporters here on Saturday, Malik said: “In 2013, during a meeting with PCB’s high officials, the board asked me to accept charges, get the life ban lifted and start rehabilitation programme.

“The statement PCB is talking about is from 2013 and not 2014. I met then Chairman PCB Najam Sethi, COO Subhan Ahmed, and Legal Counsel Tafazzul Rizvi,” he said.

“They asked me to sign the letter. PCB is using the letter against me which is totally absurd,” he added.

PCB responded to Malik’s appeal the other day, saying that he failed to respond to transcripts provided by ICC of April 2000 conversation.

“You chose not to respond to the contents of the transcripts of a conversation that took place in April 2000. In the backdrop of the above, the PCB will be unable to proceed any further until such time you respond on the said matter.”

Malik branded PCB’s response to his plea to get his name cleared from match-fixing “a joke”. He explained that his confessional statement unveiled by the board a day earlier was not voluntary but made on the board’s own advice.

“I approached the PCB in the end of 2013, not in 2014,” he said. “I met then PCB chairman Najam Sethi, then COO Subhan Ahmed and PCB lawyer Tafazzul Rizvi. The COO and the lawyer advised me to tender an apology, saying they would try to get me cleared.”

“I am shocked. I was still in the process of drafting a second response because the PCB said the first one had errors. I was in discussion with my lawyers but now the PCB has brought up this 2014 letter issue.

“On one hand, the PCB is asking me for my response but then it also stirs up another story. It’s clear that the PCB has black sheep that do not want this matter to be resolved. In fact, they want it to deteriorate.”