Lahore
Pakistan Cricket Board has recommended tough sanctions for the corrupt in cricket in its drive to assist the government around legislation on criminalizing corruption in sports.
“The PCB has reviewed the existing legislation enacted within Pakistan and has noted that the same fail to adequately target and address corruption/illegal manipulation in sports,” Chairman Ehsan Mani said on Sunday while talking to APP.
The one-man Commission of Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum in 2,000 had recommended that the Pakistan Government should investigate gambling in Pakistan, but because his advice was not taken forward and no legislation was done, Pakistan continued to face embarrassment with Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif ending up behind bars in England in 2010.
The country was at the receiving end once again during the Pakistan Super League when a number of players was banned and fined for breaching the PCB Code of Conduct.
“In the draft paper, the PCB has proposed severe sanctions pertaining to corruption, illegal manipulation, betting, match and spot-fixing as well as aiding and abetting such conduct and has proposed penalties to be imposed on individuals found guilty of engaging in such offences,” Mani added.
The PCB is presenting engaged in a corruption battle with Umar Akmal and has filed as appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) against the independent adjudicator’s decision to halve Umar Akmal 36-month sanction for failure to report corrupt approaches in two unrelated incidents.
“The PCB takes matters relating to anti-corruption very seriously and firmly maintains a zero-tolerance approach. The PCB doesn’t take any pride in seeing a cricketer of Umar’s stature being banned for corruption, but as a credible and respectable institution, we need to send out a loud and clear message to all our stakeholders that there will be no sympathy whatsoever for anyone who breaches the regulations,” the PCB has said last month.—APP
