LAHORE: Former Pakistan captain Salim Malik on Monday said he has given a strong reply to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) against a charge on him that the ICC has objectionable transcript of his talking about gambling and betting during his alleged meetings in the UK in 2000.

“I have submitted my strong reply to a charge levelled against me by the PCB, which is nothing but a pack of lies, and I am confident that common sense will prevail and I will be cleared from it very soon,” the 57-year-old Salim told Dawn after submitting his reply to a PCB official here on Monday.

“The case is related to the year 2000 but the PCB did not mention it during any hearing of my case against life ban imposed on me [by retired Justice Malik Qayyum judicial commission] which I fought in court for eight years and finally won it in 2008 to get the ban lifted,” right-handed Salim, who played 103 Tests and 283 ODIs for Pakistan, said.

“If the PCB or the ICC had any such transcript they should have presented it in court where the honourable judge also asked the PCB to give, if there is any ICC objection against me [Salim],” he continued.

“So, if the PCB hid the [said] transcript deliberately it was also a crime and the PCB will have to give an explanation [for it].”

Salim firmly believed that the ICC had not sent any transcript to the PCB about his alleged meetings in 2000 in the UK, claiming that a lobby within the PCB against him had designed a story.

The former Test batsman, who last represented Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup, hoped as he had submitted his reply in 15 working days period, the PCB would also give its reply within the same period of time, saying he wanted to solve this matter once and for all.

He maintained that Justice Qayyum Comm­ission report carries no legal importance.

Salim also expressed his reservations over the punishment given by the PCB to Test batsman Umar Akmal, who was banned for three years, for not informing the PCB about corrupt approaches made to him before the start of the fifth PSL in Karachi in February this year. “Three-year [punishment] period is too heavy for his act,” Salim reckoned.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2020