Former Pakistan captain Asif Iqbal has strongly criticized the Pakistan Cricket Board for instituting a medical commission to investigate allegations against certain players that they may have faked injuries during the recently-concluded India-Pakistan Test series.
"I fail to understand firstly what such an inquiry, conducted more than two weeks after the injuries were said to have been sustained, could possibly determine with regard to the degree of incapacity caused by that injury," Asif was quoted as saying by Islamabad daily The News.
He also said that if Pakistanis do not learn to respect their sporting heroes no one else will.
"Even if such an inquiry can come to a firm conclusion, I do not see why it was necessary to make it public that the allegations were being taken seriously, thus giving an impression as if on the face of it, some players had a case to answer. If we do not learn to respect our own sporting heroes, no one else will," he said.
Asif said if after investigations it was conclusively proved that the allegations are true, then the Board could have come out in public and levied the heaviest penalty on the concerned individuals. But to have made it an open media event, especially when it is unlikely that a definite conclusion will be reached on the issue, is an act that does the already much-battered image of Pakistan cricket no favours.
He also dismissed the suggestion that the medical committee instituted by the Board could help in advising the players on how to avoid frequent injuries in future.
"There is a physio and a team doctor and this is precisely their job. Although I am sure everyone on the medical committee appointed by the Board is of the highest professional competence, the fact of the matter must be that the team doctor and physio know the players and their medical history better than anyone else and they are the ones who should be advising the players how to avoid frequent injuries," he said.
"The reference to a committee above the heads of the team doctor and physio does not inspire much confidence in them.
"The impression I get is that losing to India required some initiatives of a political nature to show that the Board has its finger on the button, and this sort of thing can only be explained in that light. The Board's priority should be to look after the players, not humiliate them in furtherance of its own political compulsions," he added.
