The last few days have yet again seen a few allegations levelled by some respected old-time cricket legends against other respected old-time cricket legends of the country. Most notable among them was former cricket captain Amir Sohail’s allegation that former captain Wasim Akram was the reason that Pakistan never won a world cup after the famous 1992 outing. This is not the first time a senior Pakistani cricketer, especially from the time that Sohail was mentioning, has been called out for something that could, taking all the necessary precautions, well be called cheating, match-fixing, and all those names that became synonymous with Pakistan in the international press for the longest time. The line that where there’s smoke there’s fire might have become a little too clichéd over time, but it has certainly not lost its relevance. And surely authorities somewhere should have taken notice of some of these accusations at some time considering how often they have sprung up. And while it’s certainly not fair game to point fingers at respected players from the past, even if the ones pointing the fingers are no less respected, all this only reinforces the argument in favour of a thorough probe to dig out the real facts once and for all. Over the years the Pakistani cricket team, which in its day could hold its own against the best of the best the world had to offer, has had to suffer quite unnecessarily because of issues that had nothing to do with playing the game. And, often enough, the biggest reason was somebody cheating or match-fixing or trying to get others in the team to cheat or fix matches. Of course Pakistan is not the only team to have such a tag on it. Others have suffered far worse and some, like the Australians, have routinely brushed all such controversy under the carpet and protected their best players so that they could keep winning on the international stage. Still, Pakistan must move forward from the past. The team was, at the same time, the best and the worst in different ways. And the time has come to bring all unknowns to the light of day. Surely most, if not all, players would have nothing to worry since they would have nothing to hide. If all the ill will between former friends and comrades owes to some sort of misunderstanding, then all the better since needless worries can be sorted out. But if somebody does really have skeletons in his locker, then everybody should know about it. *