"Pak's entire dysfunctional tour of Australia" under ICC anti-corruption scanner

Published>Sat, May 22 10 01:07 PM

Sydney, May 22(ANI): The entire Pakistan tour of Australia in 2009-10 is under a cloud with the International Cricket Council (ICC) anti-corruption unit investigating the visiting team's performance during the series, and not just the 'controversial' Sydney Test.

Outgoing ICC Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) chief Paul Condon said that his department has been concerned about the entire tour and not just the New Year's Sydney Test.

"It is a series that worried us. The challenge is to find where the solid fact is, because what you've got there is a lot of internecine strife within the team and within Pakistan politics, with rival camps making allegations," The Australian quoted Condon, as saying.

"We are satisfied that that was a totally dysfunctional tour from a Pakistani point of view, and that dysfunctionality in the dressing room led to players not performing well, and maybe making them potentially underperform deliberately," he added.

Condon further said the ACSU was still inquiring into the series to establish facts.

"What we are trying to establish is whether that was because rival camps wanted to (bring) down captains or potential captains, or whether they were doing something more serious, for a financial fix," he said.

Meanwhile, Cricket Australia (CA) has promised to co-operate, but chief executive James Sutherland has written to the ICC for more details of its investigation.

"We have no knowledge of any concerns and we'd have expected to have some knowledge if there were any," a CA spokesman said.

"If the ICC had any concerns, we would absolutely provide them with whatever support they needed. At this stage we believe we won that game on the merits of our performance," the spokesman added.

The Pakistan Cricket Board punished almost half of the Pakistan team for their performance in Australia. Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan were banned indefinitely, Shoaib Malik and Naved-ul-Hasan were suspended for a year, while Shahid Afridi and the Akmal brothers, Umar and Kamran, were fined and placed on probation for six months. (ANI)

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