KARACHI: Former captain Rashid Latif on Wednesday took strong exception to a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) press release which denied any pressure whatsoever from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in the wicketkeeper-batsman’s appointment in the PCB and said a conversation to this effect did take place at the PCB headquarters with both chairman Najam Sethi and COO Subhan Ahmed in attendance.

In a mail sent to Dawn on Wednesday, Rashid wrote: “Your (Dawn reporter’s) story is one hundred per cent correct. How can the PCB deny that the ECB had expressed its reservations over my appointment due to my support of Danish Kaneria when I was informed about it by none other than Chairman Najam Sethi himself?

“This meeting was held in the chairman’s office at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore on Feb 26, 2014 between 3.00pm and 4.00pm,” continued Rashid. “PCB chairman told me ‘you are a great supporter of Danish Kaneria and ECB have reservations on this, that’s why the PCB may have problems with the ECB if you take over as head of Anti corruption of PCB. May be England will not play against Pakistan in future because of this.

“COO Subhan Ahmed was also present in meeting and he also agreed with chairman PCB, I fail to understand why they are denying it now?”

Rashid further wrote: “I am not a big supporter of Kaneria but I want justice done with him because I think both PCB and ECB may be involved in his exit from international and domestic cricket for the protection of English county cricket. Why, I may ask, did Zaka Ashraf and now Sethi have supported Mohammad Amir’s case so vociferously in the ICC meetings, why couldn’t they demand a fair inquiry into Kaneria’s case?

“Amir, in fact, is a proven culprit in spot-fixing case and is serving his ban for that, but nothing has been produced against Kaneria in black and white by either the ECB or the ICC, at least not for the media to assess it openly and judge for themselves,” argued Rashid.

“Here, I must point out that neither myself nor the PCB chief had said anything to the media about the above-mentioned meeting on ECB pressures before today. However, I am compelled to put the facts right since the PCB has denied the story which is absolutely true,” Rashid concluded.