“PCB boss Butt assured me that board will provide all assistance, cooperation: Haider

KARACHI - Following the dramatic turn of events involving Pakistani wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman has finally spoken to him, and assured him of full assistance and cooperation by the board.

Haider said that PCB chief Ijaz Butt had spoken to him on the telephone to find out the circumstances surrounding his sudden departure from the team hotel in Dubai, the Daily Times reported.

“I explained everything to him. I told him I was genuinely concerned about the threats given to me for not getting involved in any racket to fix matches in the one-day series against South Africa,” Haider told TV channels on Thursday.

“I have told the PCB chairman everything and he has assured me that the board will provide me all assistance and cooperation,” the troubled cricketer added.

The 24-year-old player said that he had applied for asylum in Britain after much thought. “I am not stupid that I should give up my promising cricket career and leave my country to come to London. I did it for a reason and I feel safe in London,” he said.

He also revealed that he had handed over two letters delivered to his room in Dubai to the International Cricket Council’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU).

Haider said that he had no immediate plans to return to Pakistan as he feared for his life.

“When a prime minister like Benazir Bhutto could not be safe in Pakistan I am just an ordinary cricketer,” he said, referring to Bhutto’s assassination in Rawalpindi in 2007.

Haider also said that he was happy that the ACU and British Border and Home officials were cooperating with him. “I will not hold anything back from them,” he added.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s High Commissioner in the United Kingdom, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, met Haider on Thursday, and told reporters that he had listened to the player, and that the embassy would provide legal assistance if required. (ANI)