Malik ready for any inquiry

KARACHI, MAY 5. Pakistan's former cricket captain Salim Malik said today he was ready to face any inquiry on match-fixing and rejected reports he was planning to quit the country for good.

``I am in Pakistan and will remain in Pakistan until all the inquiries clear me,'' Malik told AFP from Lahore.

Malik, the central character in Pakistan's match-fixing controversy, is one of two players who face a life ban from the game.

Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum, a judge of the Lahore high court, who headed a judicial probe into bribery and match- fixing allegations in Pakistan cricket, reportedly said his recommendations, after a year-long inquiry, included a life ban on Malik and leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed.

Mushtaq Ahmed is on the West Indies tour with the Pakistan team.

``I went to England for personal work but my detractors were again quick to drag my name into wrong things,'' Malik said.

Australian cricketers Shane Warne, Mark Waugh and Tim May claimed Malik offered them bribes to play poorly during Australia's tour of Pakistan in 1994.

``I was cleared by a supreme court judge in 1995 and again in 1999 but there are some people who always conspire against me with allegations,'' the former Pakistan captain said.

Malik was implicated in an interim report in September 1998 but was cleared of match-fixing by deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's accountability bureau in August 1999.

He was dropped from Pakistan's side after failing with the bat in the 1999 World Cup in England. ``I am ready to play and hope to stage a comeback once I get into form,'' he said.

He refused to comment on former South African captain Hansie Cronje's confession of having taken money from a bookie.

``He is passing through a tough time and was regarded a clean player, I don't want to comment on that,'' he said.

Malik lauded the International Cricket Council (ICC)'s decisions at its two-day emergency meeting on match-fixing. ``Its good news they are taking the matter seriously but they should handle those who come up with baseless allegations.''

The Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, General Tauqir Zia, is scheduled to meet the President of Pakistan, Mr. Mohammad Rafiq Tarrar, soon to discuss Justice Qayyum's match-fixing report. He has promised the report would be made public.

- AFP

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