Pakistan news

Haider wants to end retirement

ESPNcricinfo staff

May 12, 2011

Zulqarnain haider

Zulqarnain haider the Pakistan wicketkeeper who fled to London in November last year claiming he had received death threats from unidentified people seeking to draw him into match-fixing, has announced his intention to resume his cricket-playing career.

Haider, who retired from international cricket soon after arriving in the UK, returned to Pakistan in April after receiving assurances from the government about his and his family's safety.

"I have decided to abandon retirement and will soon meet PCB officials once I get clearance to go out of my home," Haider said in Lahore. "I did not retire from first-class cricket, so I can still play for my department where my job is permanent [Haider plays for ZTBL]."

Haider had gone missing from the Pakistan team hotel in the UAE before the fifth and final ODI against South Africa. He fled to the UK to seek protection and placed an application for asylum that hinged on the nature of the information he was able to divulge, as the extraordinary nature of his case appeared to fall outside the usual conditions required of a person seeking refugee status.

A fact-finding committee subsequently set-up by the PCB, who suspended his contract, to look into the affair failed to find any clear motives behind his actions.

A board official told ESPNcricinfo last month that there was no "official next step," as far as Haider was concerned. "The fact-finding committee's last communication with him was to seek some more details, but they never heard back from him. The board will do nothing now until he gets in touch with us. After that we can decide on a future course of action, whether disciplinary because he breached the code of conduct, or otherwise."

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