Pakistan’s cricketers should publish their bank accounts to prove they are not crooked match-fixers, claims banned leg-spinner Danish Kaneria
Former bowler made the incendiary demand ahead of the controversial Test series as visitors include Mohammad Amir
PAKISTAN’s cricketers should publish their bank accounts to prove they are not crooked match-fixers before a ball is bowled against England, a banned star claimed.
Danish Kaneria made the incendiary demand ahead of the controversial Test series starting at Lord's on Thursday.
The visitors include fast bowler Mohammad Amir in their line-up, despite being handed a five-year ban and prison term for spot-fixing at the same venue in 2010.
The decision has incensed spin-wizard Kaneria, who was handed a life-ban from cricket even though a Scotland Yard investigation into claims he fixed matches was dropped.
Pakistan’s fourth highest wicket taker despite not bowling a ball in six years, 35, has not been found guilty of any wrongdoing.
But his career lies in tatters after the English Cricket Board insisted he receive a life-ban from the game due to unpublished “overwhelming evidence” against him.
Dad-of-two Kaneria slammed the ECB for their “hypocrisy” in dealing with the blight of spot-fixing which has shamed the game.
He told The Sun yesterday: “I don’t know why they support people who are criminals, but don’t support people who are not criminals.
“The criminals should be banned for life.
“A person who has done wrong, who has cheated the crowd, cheated the Pakistan national colours, an ambassador for the country, who has tarnished the name of the country, cannot come back, unless he is not proven guilty.
“A proven guilty person cannot play.
“Before this series each player and each official at the Pakistan Cricket Board should show his bank account. The series would be more effective then. Once you have done it you will do it again.”
Kaneria was a regular in the Pakistan side for almost ten years during which he took 261 wickets in 61 test matches and 15 wickets in 18 one day internationals.
But his jet-setting life was turned upside down after he was accused of spot-fixing when playing county cricket for Essex versus Durham in a 2009 NatWest Pro40 game.
He was arrested and bailed a year later by police, although within three months it was announced they would take no further action against him.
But in 2012 his Essex team-mate and co-accused Mervyn Westfield named Kaneria as the man who introduced him to Anu Bhatt, a crooked Indian bookie.
Westfield, who admitted attempting to concede 12 runs in his first over after being paid £6,000, was jailed for four months following a high-profile trial.
The disgraced cheat and Kaneria were then charged by the ECB for “alleged breaches of anti-corruption directives”.
Westfield was suspended from the sport for five years while Kaneria - an innocent man in the eyes of the law - was landed a lifetime ban.
Crooked Westfield’s ban was relaxed in 2014 after he undertook anti-corruption work, and he was allowed to return to the game.
Kaneria, axed without reason by the Pakistan Cricket Board before the ECB’s lifetime ban was announced, has twice failed to appeal the suspension. And a High Court judge upheld the cricket panel’s verdicts.
In July 2013, the ECB said: “We note with regret that Mr Kaneria has neither made any admission of guilt nor expressed any remorse for this corrupt actions, despite the weight of evidence against him.”
Devastated Kaneria, in a phone interview from his Karachi home, told The Sun: “The English Cricket Board and the Pakistan Cricket Board have tarnished my name very badly.
“Nobody has a life ban. Not Mohammad Amir, the guy caught red-handed by Scotland Yard police during the 2010 England tour now playing in England once again.
“Even the rules stopping him from travelling to the UK were relaxed because as I understand it a foreign national prisoner on release cannot travel back to the UK.
“But he got the support from the ECB. It is two standards. The rules are different for some players.”
Sobbing down the phone, Kaneria said: “When I came to UK With Essex in 2010 I played county cricket honestly.
I worked very hard to achieve so much. I gave a full interview to the police and answered every question they asked me. I stick to every word I said. I told them the truth.
“My bank account when I joined Essex had been opened by the Essex chief executive David East. There was no wrongdoing.
“Mervyn Westfield told lies about me. Even the judge at his trial said he had lied on several occasions, he didn’t believe him. The case against me was not re-opened.”
Kaneria added: “There is no ‘overwhelming evidence’ against me, as the ECB has suggested.
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“I have challenged them before, and I challenge them now, to produce this.
“If there is anything proving anything against me I will walk away.
“Six years have passed and I’m still waiting. I have been used as a scapegoat by the ECB.”
Kaneria believes the ECB’s appeal panels were anything but independent.
He said: “I had a feeling there was something fishy. How can they give me a fair hearing. I am not part of the ECB.
“I was told they didn’t think I had done the fixing, but I had got the money. I was not given names of people I was supposed to have been given the money by.
“I was cross-examined for three hours. I thought everything was in my favour. They even said I had been constant from the start.”
Kaneria highlighted the dozens of cases of alleged match-fixing which have blighted the game - including in 2000 an Indian bookie claiming he supplied England legend Alec Stewart with information.
Stewart, who denied the charge, had to wait before the International Cricket Council cleared him of wrongdoing.
He said: “In my case I think the police are the main authority.
“When the ECB banned me in 2012 the police said there is nothing we can do against Kaneria. They said they didn’t have a clue why I was banned. This is only the ECB ego.
“I think they have done this to clear their name, to show the world that they have zero tolerance against fixing and everything.
“But why have they done this against me? I am a Pakistani and a Hindu. I have no support from the PCB at all.
“The ECB took that advantage. They wanted me out of international cricket.”
Kaneria thinks his religious background could be relevant to the PCB “snubbing” him - he was only the second Hindu and seventh non-Muslim to represent Pakistan.
He now faces financial ruin after being landed with £250,000 legal bills for his various appeals.
The star said: “From my experience in cricket I think match fixing still occurs today. But until I have evidence I will not talk.
“Once you are in the dirt you are in the dirt.
“I don’t know why the ECB is dictating the actions of the PCB. In my case, so many players and ex-players supported me, but not the PCB.
“They say we can't do anything because our hands are tied by the ECB. Why is that?”
Kaneria said of the latest England versus Pakistan series: “It is hard for me to watch. These two countries have tarnished me.
“I have lost the best six years of my playing career. If I had carried on I would by now be Pakistan’s number one bowler, and broken the wicket-taking record of Waqar Younis, Imran Khan and Wasim Akram. But I don’t have any support.
“The ECB has sent a message to young cricketers by allowing Amir to return.
“For youngsters they think, ‘I will do match fixing, earn £200,000, and accept that in five years after a ban I will come back, I will only be 25’.
“It should be that if you are caught you never play again.”
The right-arm leg spinner, known for his well-disguised googly, said: “I still believe the day will come when I will be cleared. I still fight and never lose hope.
“The ECB keep telling me I should show remorse. But why should I accept something I have not done. It is very unfair.
“Cricket was my bread and butter, now it has smashed me.
“Anyone else in my position would consider suicide. Only because of my children and my God they keep me alive. God gives me hope. I am heartbroken.
“I would like my life ban to be over so I can earn money from coaching.
“I have requested sympathy from ECB, PCB and International Cricket Council but they throw my request in the bin.”
The Pakistan Cricket Board told The Sun yesterday: “We are very disappointed at Kaneria’s statement because we didn’t ban him he was banned by the England and Wales Cricket Board in the UK.
"And he was given all opportunity to appeal against the life ban. Being a member of the ICC the PCB is obliged to implement the decision of the ECB as well.
“We strongly condemn the anti-PCB statement. If he was discriminated against at any time because of his religion he would not have even played one match for Pakistan.
“Kaneria must not forget that he played 61 tests and 18 One Day Internationals for the country as a Hindu and things changed only after he was banned.”
The ECB referred The Sun to a 2014 statement when the High Court dismissed Kaneria’s bid to overturn the verdicts of the two appeals.
Commenting on that decision, ECB Chief Executive David Collier said: “This judgment re-affirms the previous findings of guilt and recognises that the two Cricket Discipline Commission Panels’ decisions to impose a life ban were proportionate to the seriousness of the offences.
"It also makes it abundantly clear that there was no error of law or irregularity involved in the disciplinary process.
“This case has now been considered by two different independent panels and an experienced High Court Judge. Today’s decision supports the outcome of the earlier hearings both of which led to a finding that Mr Kaneria acted as a recruiter of spot-fixers and exploited his status as an international player to engage a young county professional, Mervyn Westfield, in corrupt activity.
“Once again, in the light of Justice Hamblen’s ruling today and the overwhelming weight of evidence laid against him, we would urge Mr Kaneria to publicly admit his guilt in this matter, apologise for betraying the trust of his former team-mates at Essex and ask him to co-operate with both ECB and ICC in their ongoing efforts to root out corrupt activities within cricket.”