PAKISTAN SPINNER FINALLY ADMITS HIS GUILT
After 6 years of lies, Pakistan star Kaneria admits corruption plot Apologises to former Essex team-mate who went to prison Pleads with the cricket authorities to lift his life ban
Danish Kaneria has finally admitted his guilt in the cricket corruption scandal that landed his essex teammate Mervyn Westfield in jail.
in a breathtakingly honest interview with al Jazeera’s investigative unit, the former Pakistan spinner, who for six years had denied wrongdoing, apologises to former essex bowler Westfield, asks for forgiveness, and pleads with cricket’s authorities to lift the life ban imposed on him by the eCB in 2012.
Kaneria adds: ‘i have become strong enough to make this decision because you cannot live a life with lies.’
Westfield spent two months at London’s Belmarsh prison after pleading guilty to accepting £6,000 from an illegal bookmaker, anu Bhatt, to concede 12 runs in his first over of a 40-over game against Durham in 2009. he conceded only 10 but still took the cash. Last night Westfield told
Sportsmail: ‘This whole chapter of spot-fixing changed my life, but i have never blamed anyone for the terrible mistake i made.
‘however, opening up about my wrongdoing and telling the truth allowed me to move on. i hope that Danish finds peace and closure by doing this, and i wish him all the best for the future.’
Kaneria facilitated the scam by introducing Westfield to Bhatt but escaped criminal charges after prosecutors decided there was insufficient evidence to convict him.
Despite that, an eCB panel banned him for life after finding him guilty of inducing Westfield to underperform and of bringing the game into disrepute.
at the time, Gerard elias QC, chairing the panel, described Kaneria as a ‘grave danger to the game of cricket’, and said his evidence ‘simply does not stand up to scrutiny and is plainly lies’.
ever since, Kaneria — the leading spin bowler in Pakistan’s Test history with 261 wickets — has protested his innocence, twice appealing unsuccessfully against the ban. now, though, he has come clean.
he begins the al Jazeera interview with a confession: ‘My name is Danish Kaneria and i admit that i was guilty of the two charges brought against me by the england and Wales Cricket Board in 2012.’
and he adds: ‘i want to apologise to Mervyn Westfield, my essex team-mates, my essex cricket club, my essex cricket fans. i say sorry to Pakistan.’
Despite being warned by the iCC’s anti-corruption unit in 2008 that Bhatt was involved in illegal betting, Kaneria introduced Westfield, then a naive 21-year-old with a promising career ahead of him, to the bookmaker.
Kaneria, now 37, was even named by the Old Bailey judge who convicted Westfield as the brains behind the spot- fix. Kaneria now admits: ‘Mervyn used to tell me he wants to become a rich cricketer. i was highly paid in essex and an international player. i was living a lavish life, so he also wanted to make money.
‘i think he was targeted by anu Bhatt and fell into that temptation. Being a senior cricketer, i should have taken it one step higher of telling Mervyn that this guy is suspicious.
‘i regret very much i didn’t complain to the higher authorities like the eCB or the iCC unit. i didn’t inform them or tell them that this guy is over (in the UK).’
Kaneria last played for Pakistan in the Trent Bridge Test of 2010, and has not appeared in any firstclass game since early 2012, with all international boards obliged by the iCC to respect the eCB ban.
now he wants a way back into the game that once made him a national hero. ‘i was the highest wicket-taker for Pakistan and i was making good money,’ he says. ‘i lost my friends, the respect which i used to get from the cricketing fans. i lost everything.
‘i want to ask people’s forgiveness. Cricket has given me so much in my life and i want to give something back.
‘if the eCB and iCC and other bodies would give me a second chance i can help to educate young people in cricket, teach them that if you do wrong you are finished like me.
‘There are people who will tempt you but you have to be strong. Go to the right direction, rather than making money in a short- cut. They will end where i am today.’
Kaneria says part of the reason he denied the charges was because his father, who died in april 2013, was fighting cancer.
‘his health was getting worse and worse. i didn’t have the courage to tell him that i was wrong. he was a very, very proud guy. Very, very proud of me and what i did, representing Pakistan.’
at the time of the eCB hearing, Kaneria insisted that the panel believe him over Westfield, telling reporters that it was ‘one man’s word against another man’s word, and you can’t cut a man’s hand off with that’.
But the hearing also concluded that Kaneria had approached other essex players about the possibility of spot-fixing, only for those players to laugh off the suggestions ‘as a joke’.
after being released from jail, Westfield was banned from professional cricket for five years, but has been playing for essex club Frinton-on-sea, who are now in the east anglian Premier League, since 2014. in 2016 he turned out three times for minor county suffolk.
Though angry at first at what he perceived to be a lack of support from cricket’s authorities, he went on to work with the Professional Cricketers’ association, speaking to young players about the dangers of corruption.
now 30, Westfield works as a scaffolder. Cricket’sMatch-Fixers:TheMunawarFiles is on Al Jazeera English TV, Sunday 9pm, and at aljazeera.com/investigations from 11am.