Miandad calls on ICC to ban Broad by AFP

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Player:

Javed Miandad

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DateLine: 6th March 2009

 

Pakistan great Javed Miandad urged cricket bosses Friday to ban match official Chris Broad after he criticised security provision following the Lahore attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team.

 

Match referee Broad said television footage of the attack showed "not a sign of a policeman anywhere," leaving him and fellow officials "sitting ducks" when armed men began shooting and throwing grenades at them on Tuesday.

 

"We were promised high-level security and in our hour of need that security vanished," said Broad following his return to England.

 

But Miandad, who played 124 Tests for Pakistan, criticised the comments of the former England batsman.

 

"How can Broad, an official of the ICC (International Cricket Council), make such remarks in public? I demand from the ICC that they ban Broad for life," said Miandad, who resigned recently as director general of the Pakistan Cricket Board over differences with PCB chairman Ijaz Butt.

 

Butt himself Thursday accused Broad, who was the ICC's match referee for the second Test between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, of lying over poor security.

 

Miandad also accused Broad of declining to make positive comments in public about Pakistani security for the one-day series in January, in contrast to his willingness to speak out now.

 

"I was the head of the organising committee when Broad was here for the one-day series between Pakistan and Sri Lanka and at that time he praised the security arrangements but refused to say that in public.

 

"Broad told me that he was not supposed to talk before the media as he was an ICC official. So how can he speak to the media now?" said Miandad.

 

"Policemen gave their lives to save the Sri Lankan team and the officials' van. If they vanished from the scene how come they were killed?" asked Miandad, also a former coach.

 

Miandad urged Asian nations to support Pakistan in its hour of need.

 

"Terror can happen anywhere. Terrorists hit Mumbai," said Miandad, referring to attacks on India's commercial hub last November which killed 165 people and which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

 

"Asian countries must support each other and fight this."

 

"I think India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh must join hands to curb all such incidents and keep the game alive," said Miandad.

 

"I salute Sri Lanka. They agreed to come here when no team wanted to come here. The way the Sri Lankan players have reacted to the attacks was positive but others like Broad are adding fuel to the fire."

 

Tuesday's attacks, which killed eight people and left seven players injured, were a serious blow for cricket in Pakistan, where millions follow the game passionately, and has deepened the isolation of a country now shunned by much of the world cricket community.

(Article: Copyright © 2009 AFP)