KARACHI (Monitoring Desk): Former captain Rashid Latif has said that match fixing should be treated as a criminal offence and demanded that parliament should pass laws to criminalise the act.
Latif, while speaking to media in an online session, said that such players should be limited to domestic cricket after serving their time.
“ICC has made rules and these rules are followed by all the boards but these rules usually allow corrupt cricketers to return. Don’t allow players to return to international cricket, limit them to domestic cricket to maintain their livelihood,” Rashid said.
“Countries have made police case and we need to get laws constituted from parliament and make it a crime in country. Furthermore, players’ properties should be confiscated as well,” said the former captain.
Sri Lanka, last year, became the first country in Asia to criminalise the offence; this move is also followed by Australia and South Africa. In the UK, the punishment for such an offence falls under the bribery act.
Furthermore, the former skipper opposed the possible return of opening batsman Sharjeel Khan and pointed fingers at cricket officials too.
“Is corruption limited to players only? Why no questions are ever asked to officials running cricket? We can’t rule out such thing, players are always caught but there should be some eye on officials as well,” he said.
“And yes, I oppose return of Sharjeel Khan,” said the former wicket keeper.
The former wicket keeper batsman also spoke about the plight of Pakistani domestic cricketer and demanded that PCB should try to accommodate maximum players.
READ: Not your place to talk about Sharjeel Khan says PCB CEO Wasim Khan admonishes Mohammad Hafeez
He also requested the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to revisit their policy to shut departmental cricket.
“There is no harm in having departmental cricket along as it gives job security to cricketers. Not every cricketer is centrally contracted or getting to play leagues all over and it will always help Pakistan cricket,” Rashid said.
Rashid also demanded the PCB for the pension scheme age bracket to lower to 45 instead of 60 as most retired cricketers struggle for income.
“How long one can play cricket? There are many former internationals who are not living an ideal financial life. PCB should think about all such cricketers,” he said.
He also advised Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik to not to be offended by what Ramiz Raja said about them.
“There is no need to be offended by what Ramiz said, it is his job and I believe that both Hafeez and Malik have their places secured in current team as there is no immediate replacement available,” said the former captain.
