The Pakistan Cricket Board has Prime Minister Imran Khan's backing to criminalise match-fixing, PCB chairman Ehsan M has confirmed.
When contacted M to ask whether Imran Khan has backed the PCB to criminalise match-fixing, he replied: "Yes, he has lent his support".
The Pakistan Cricket Board has been vocal in the past about bringing in legislation to make match-fixing a criminal offence.
As per the current rules and regulations, the board does not have the legal authority to check the bank accounts of the concerned authorities whenever a match-fixing incident is reported.
Now whenever the new legislation comes into force, match-fixing is likely to become a criminal offence and the punishment for offenders will also be specified.
Over the last few years, Pakistan has reported several match-fixing cases.
Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, and Mohammad Amir were involved in the spot-fixing scandal in a Test match against England in 2010. The ICC banned these players for a period of 5-10 years in November 2011.
Over the past few weeks, there has been huge speculation over Ehsan M and Sourav Ganguly being in the running for heading the ICC, however, M has clarified his stand on this particular matter.
"I was never in the running, I do not aspire for the role and I only came back to serve Pakistan cricket," M told .
ICC's elections are slated to be held in July this year and the current chairperson Shashank Manohar has already clarified that he is not seeking a tenure extension.
( With inputs from ANI )
