Shaharyar says PCB won’t spare match-fixers

A TOP official of the Pakistan Cricket Board says two players accused of involvement in spot-fixing in the Pakistan Super League tournament will face maximum punishments if they confess. Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif arrived in Lahore on Wednesday and were scheduled to appear before the PCB'S head of anti-corruption unit Col. Mohammad Azam.

"If they confessed there's no need to form a tribunal, but we will hand them maximum punishment so that nobody could do this thing in future,'' PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan told reporters.

Shaharyar said the players will be handed the charges and the PCB will give them around 14 days to respond. "We will give evidence to them which we have against them ... it's necessary to give them a chance," Shaharyar said.

Shaharyar said the PCB was aware of the fact that bookmakers were targeting players in the PSL and that was the reason players were briefed before the inaugural match between Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi on Feb. 9 in Dubai. Both accused players were part of the defending champions Islamabad United. Sharjeel played in the first match, which was under the scrutiny of the PCB'S anti-corruption unit while Latif was rested.

PCB provisionally suspended both Sharjeel and Latif while another former test opener Nasir Jamshed was also provisionally suspended on Monday — the day he was arrested and then released on bail in England. "Jamshed and another man, Yusuf, were arrested by the National Crime Agency,'' a PCB official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

A third player under probe

A third Islamabad United player is also under investigation and a player from each of the Karachi Kings and Quetta Gladiators franchises was questioned by the PCB'S anti-corruption unit in the UAE, where the Super League is being staged. All three players were allowed to continue playing in the tournament. "We know what we are doing," PSL chairman Najam Sethi said late Tuesday.