Akram cleared; reinstated as captain

LONDON, SEPT 14: Confident he had been cleared of involvement in a match-fixing scandal, Wasim Akram today welcomed being reinstated as P...

LONDON, SEPT 14: Confident he had been cleared of involvement in a match-fixing scandal, Wasim Akram today welcomed being reinstated as Pakistan team captain and said he hoped the bribery allegations had been silenced.

“It’s very important not only for me but also for all the cricketers in Pakistan,” Akram said. “People all over the world should now know that no one has done anything wrong.”

“The reputation of cricket has been ruined because of this. Why did we have to wait for years for these allegations to come out?” Akram said at a news conference at the Pakistan High Commission in London.

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Akram was speaking two days before a court judgment, reached Saturday, is made public in Pakistan. It still has to be submitted to President of Pakistan Rafiq Tarar, who has the power to impose punishment if the players are found guilty.

Akram’s suspension was revoked and he was exonerated by a judicial commission of all betting and match-fixing charges yesterday. The decision to include Akram was taken after the one-man judicial inquiry commission headed by Lahore High Court judge Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum exonerated him of all charges.

“This was the first time that my side of the story could be told and that’s why I went back to Pakistan,” Akram said today. Mujibur Rehman, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, announced that Akram would lead the team in the upcoming series of One-day games against West Indies in Toronto. The Pakistan team is gathering in London and flying to Canada tomorrow.

“For the last many years, there’s been a shadow of allegations over the Pakistan cricket team and my first job was to the clear the names of my team and its members,” said Rehman, who had suspended the players under suspicion two months ago.