India had a hand in Pakistan’s defeat against Kiwis

Australian umpire Simon Taufel had wrongly adjudged Umar Akmal leg-before-wicket at a crucial stage of the match and even admitted to the mistake and apologised later. Shah said he would not refrain from pressing the PCB to see that the International Cricket Council impose at least a one-year ban on Taufel.

“Taufel must be banned. He was against Pakistan,” Shah fumed.

The minister,however,dismissed allegations by the Chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports Jamshed Khan Dasti that Pakistan had deliberately lost the matches to Australia and New Zealand for ulterior motives.

“Nothing of that sort happened in South Africa. We fought till the end against Australia and against New Zealand we got some very bad decisions,” he said. Wasim Bari,the chief operating officer of the board also said that he was surprised at Dasti’s statement made to some television channels on Monday night.

“All I can say that the Champions Trophy is an ICC and it is their property and they organize it so we don’t want to comment on something which is not our territory,” Bari said. He said that the ICC anti-corruption and security unit kept a close watch on the tournament and it was their responsibility to ensure it was clean.

“Since the ACSU is there to ensure there is no corruption in any match we are not in a position to make any comments on the allegations by Dasti,” he said.