Majid banned telephone calls in Christchurch (30 Mar 1997)

30 March 1997

Majid banned telephone calls in Christchurch

By Our Sports Reporter

KARACHI, March 29: Ever since Aamir Sohail has opened the Pandora's box by making betting and match-fixing allegations against his colleagues, interesting stories are emanating from various quarters.

Two more stunning revelations were made on Saturday by a member of the Pakistan cricket team but on condition of anonymity. "Will someone ask Majid Khan why he banned the incoming telephone calls to the rooms of the players when the team was in Christchurch, New Zealand, for the final one-day international," the query came in response to Majid Khan's claims that he was unaware of the players involvement in betting and match fixing when he was the manager in 1994. Majid Khan had directed the operator that every call must be put to him and only upon his approval be forwarded to the concerned player, sources alleged.

Majid Khan, sources continued, had issued these orders after Pakistan had lost the third Test in controversial circumstances. New Zealand had scored over 325 runs in the fourth innings to notch up a consolation win with Shane Thompson and Bryan Young scoring centuries.

The second interesting revelation was against former captain Salim Malik. "For the first time in the history of cricket, two tosses were made in Zimbabwe in th first Test of the three-match series in 1994-95. Zimbabwe won the Harare game by an innings to record their first-ever Test win," the sources revealed. Giving the background, they said Salim Malik instead of calling head or tail, called `bird' (the Zimbabwean national symbol labelled on their coin).

"The Match Referee, Jackie Hendricks of the West Indies, watching the coin tossed in the air, was amazed at the strange call made by the visiting captain. He, at once, discarded the result of the toss on the spot saying it was not on. He told Malik either to call head or tail. On the re-toss, Malik made the wrong call and had to field. "Salim Malik had done the same with Ken Rutherford on the 1994 tour of New Zealand. At that time he (Salim Malik) didn't say anything like bird but muttered words at the time of the toss which were not understandable to Rutherford.

"On Salim Malik's claim that he made the right call, Rutherford complimented him. He, however, informed the covering journalists about Salim Malik's strange behaviour at the time of the toss. Next day's newspapers were worth reading."

Source:: Dawn (https://xiber.com/dawn/)