"I Would've Banned Them": Ramiz Raja's Big Statement On Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis
Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Ramiz Raja has now targetted legendary fast bowlers, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis
Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ramiz Raja has been in the news since he was relieved of his duties. Recently, Ramiz had claimed that he wasn't allowed to "go to office and collect" his belongings, and also slammed the interim PCB chief Najam Sethi. Now, Ramiz, while referring to Justice Malik Muhammad Qayyum report on match-fixing, has targetted legendary fast bowlers, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. Notably, Akram, whose name came up in the report quite a few times, was fined and removed from captaincy.
Former Pakistan captain Waqar was also fined after the report went public.
Despite being fined, both Akram and Waqar were part of Pakistan's management staff, with the later having two separate stints as the head coach of the team.
Ramiz, however, has said that if he was the law maker, he would've banned both Akram and Waqar forever.
"I think no one should have had the chance (of coming back to Pakistan cricket). If Wasim Akram's name is in there, and he was censured for not cooperating, right? It was a borderline case. If I was the decision maker at the time, I would've banned them forever. You brought them back to system. I wasn't in power at the time. We were told to play with them and work with them, and that was it. No one knew how to tackle that. So many people were involved in that. I don't know what the compulsion was," Ramiz said on Samaa TV.
Ramiz also shared his views on the trio of Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir, and Mohammad Asif, who were also banned for spot-fixing charges in 2010.
On being asked if his stance remains the same on the trio, Ramiz said: "Whoever is tainted, I've zero tolerance on it. I'm absolutely clear. People say they've had the punishment, move on. But I've experienced such situations."
Pakistan Cricket Team