Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is also the patron-in-chief of the country’s cricket board, has approved the country’s cricket board’s plan to revise its anti-corruption code and make match-fixing a criminal offence.
According to a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) source, the green signal came when PCB chairman Ehsan Mani met with Imran earlier this week where the premier also gave the clearance for the national team to tour England despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Imran supported the draft copy of the new laws and advised Mani to get it cleared by the Law and other relevant ministries so that it can be tabled in the parliament and become a written law,” PTI quoted the source as saying.
The PCB intends to criminalise match-fixing and spot-fixing and also specify punishments for offenders, including jail time. “The new laws would give the PCB’s Anti-Corruption and security unit the power to not only probe money trails and assets off players/officials/persons but also carry out raids where required and file criminal cases,” the source said.
Until now, the PCB has implemented the Anti-Corruption code, which is followed by the International Cricket Council. That code does not criminalise corruption in cricket and is limited in its punishments for offenders.