SHARJAH - Khalid Latif's lawyer has claimed that his client had offered to help the so-called bookie, who was involved the spot-fixing controversy in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) matches, gets arrested but his appeal was ignored by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
In an exclusive chat with the reporter from Pakistan, where he attended the two-day hearings with his client Latif, where they boycotted the part of the second day's hearing though, lawyer Badar Alam said: “The PCB was not interested in going into the bottom of this scandal but wanted the players to be the scapegoats. Latif had even offered the PCB officials to allow him to call the bookie, get the police alerted and ensure that the bookie is alerted. The PCB should have been happier with this offer but they never acted.
"My client never went to bookie (Yousuf) of his own but he was repeatedly asked by Nasir Jamshed to go and meet his "friend". Nasir had even said to him that his image would be spoiled if he does not go and meet him,” he added.
Badar lawyer said: "The PCB is lying and saying that in a video recording, Khalid Latif has accepted the charges. My client has never said so. We have been constantly requesting them to hand over the tape where he has said so, but the PCB is constantly denying saying it is a confidential tape and cannot hand over. How can we prove our innocence, if my client is denied the access of the evidence?
"Before the spot-fixing scandal broke, the PCB was said to be alerted by United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA). Then why didn’t the PCB officials also caution the players. If they failed in this, they should also be equally responsible,” the lawyer added.
He said that the PCB lawyer was claiming that the bat grips were found on Latif’s bats. “This is untrue. The grips were in his kit bag (not on bats) and the same information was furnished to the PCB by Latif himself.”
"Yousuf had dropped me at a hotel in the late night of February 9, after my refusal to accept his offer. He put the different colours of bat-grips in my bag and had said they are of not use to him,” Latif had informed to the PCB in a letter, a copy of which is in the possession of this Reporter. "My honesty and clear conscious is evident, but you have improperly converted the same into charges against me by distorting the facts instead of appreciating my fair conduct,” Latif's reply has said. "The PCB is only acting on presumptions in this case and that's why we are objecting to it,” the lawyer signed off.
BIPIN DANI