'To world we are cheats'

Pakistani fans, who referred national cricket players to donkeys, here hold one as they shout slogans during a protest against match-fixing in Lahore yesterday.Photo: AFP

Pakistan's press Monday said a match-fixing scandal involving top cricketers was an act of shameful betrayal for a flooded, terror-hit nation that worships the game.
National captain Salman Butt and two of the country's star bowlers should be sacked, said English-language daily The News, after they were quizzed by British detectives over the alleged gambling scam in a match against England.
"Our cricketers should have been ambassadors for us at this time, instead they have stabbed us in the back," the newspaper said in an editorial.
"The evidence appears conclusive and we are exposed to the world as cheats and frauds once again," it said, adding that the national sport faced "a very uncertain future".
"Perhaps the only way forward now is to literally start from scratch. Sack the lot, top to bottom. Anything less and the stink generated by these allegations will stick to us forever."
The News of the World said it paid 150,000 pounds (230,000 dollars) and that bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif delivered no-balls at the exact points in the fourth Test that the middleman had indicated.
The allegations have caused uproar in Pakistan -- already in crisis-mode as floods lay waste to large parts of the militant-riddled country -- and shaken a sport that considers itself synonymous with fair play.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, announcing the government investigation, said the claims "have bowed our heads in shame" while President Asif Ali Zardari has expressed his disappointment.
Pakistan's best-selling newspaper, Daily Jang, said: "The whole nation is ashamed.
"Corruption has marred the country... and this is going on and on unabated. This latest cricket corruption case shows again the need for revising the whole system," it said in an editorial.
But the country's second most popular newspaper, Daily Express, blamed an anti-Pakistan lobby in neighbouring India for the scandal.
"The match-fixing scandal is an Indian conspiracy against the Pakistan team," it said.
"The Indian bookmakers' lobby used Azhar and Mazhar Majeed (the alleged bookmakers at the centre of the scandal) to tarnish Pakistan's image and to derail the careers of (bowlers) Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif," it said.
Federal sports minister Ijaz Jakhrani promised that any players found guilty would be severely punished, while the Pakistan Cricket Board said it had had requested access to the ongoing investigation.
However, The Times in London pleaded for the cricketing world not to ostracise "a troubled nation".
"In a time when Pakistan is balanced on an existential knife-edge, cricket represents liberalism rather than extremism; international engagement rather than isolation; the celebration of graceful civilisation rather than the cold nihilism of tribal and religious strife," it said.