“Pakistan-gate” and other sins in the cricket federation – The shameful scene in ELOK –

Forgeries, illegal foreign athletes in the national team who beat her abroad, holding a tournament with an illegal betting company based in India as the main sponsor, vindictive boycotts of clubs in elections, a seven-member board with a treasurer… an alternate member. All this with complaints and lawsuits, involvement of the Department of Aliens, intervention of the prosecution which has already opened a file and unjustified delays in the intervention of the GCA despite the official complaints and testimonies make up a shameful scene in and around the Hellenic Cricket Federation! Most Greek sports fans may not know it, but it is now an Olympic sport that will officially participate for the first time in the Los Angeles Games in 2028.

Of course, complaints about scandals in the long-suffering federation are not something new, since for several years the scene has remained almost the same and unchanged, with the smells of scandals emerging each time more and more strongly.

Cricket in the last three years has been in a deep crisis, especially since the complaints against the current administration of the federation (ELOK) include:

The participation of Pakistani athletes in the national team of Greece, even if they did not have a residence permit in our country.

Disappearances of two Pakistanis with forged papers from the national mission abroad.

Whistleblowing reports for fake match sheets.

Complaint for illegal exclusion of a union from the federation elections.

Complaint to the Ministry of Sports George Mavrotas for running a tournament sponsored by an illegal betting company (Sky247) based in India!

Complaints to the EFIPED of the EOE and also to the GGA which are still pending.

“I honestly never expected our sport to get to this point. There are many and tragic things that have happened and continue to happen. The time has now come for the state to end. We made the moves we had to make and we continue in this direction. We have informed the state and all the relevant bodies and authorities and we are waiting for him to put things in place” states the Joseph Nikitaspresident of the Gymnastic Society of Corfu (GEK) and for 17 years (2004-21) president of the Hellenic Cricket Federation (ELOK), as well as a veteran international and captain of the national team. And it is his association that pursued the clarification of the case and the punishment of those involved in the Greek…Pakistan-gate, having a legitimate interest.

Without a residence permit

Especially with regard to the case of the four Pakistani athletes and the fake supporting documents submitted to compete in the championship and the national as well as what the Corfu Gymnastics Association reported to the GGA and the authorities, “by the Hellenic Cricket Federation were issued on 31 August 2022 sports identity cards to four sportsmen of Pakistani nationality and Pakistani passports. These athletes reside in France, have a residence permit there and compete in French teams. However, they did not have any of the supporting documents required (e.g. a residence permit in our country) for ELOK to issue them athletes’ cards to compete for the GS Byron club. And while we informed the federation that it will be illegal to issue tickets, the federation did not care and without your opinion proceeded to issue them” said the complaint to the GGA, among other things.

In another part of the complaint it is stated that “the four Pakistanis came to Greece on 3/9/22, the eve of the match with GEK. However, their tickets, with the application and diligence of the presentation of supporting documents by GS Byron, were issued on August 31 without the athletes even being in Corfu. This means that the corresponding health cards of the athletes with the date of (allegedly) examination by a cardiologist, 31/8/2022 and which were used to issue the cards are false and invalid, since they were never examined by a cardiologist.”

However, in addition to their participation in the championship and according to what was revealed in its complaint by the Greek Football Association of Corfu, these athletes participated in the national cricket team’s mission for the European championship in Malaga, Spain, where two of them… disappeared and they did not return with the shipment to Greece!

The Department of Foreigners

GE Corfu, which lost the title to Byron in the final of the championship, submitted objections to the irregular participation of Pakistanis due to forged documents and, along with its document to the Department of Foreigners, requested to know whether the two Pakistanis who disappeared in Spain (even the Anti-Terrorist has been involved in the investigation) were legally in the country. The answer from the Directorate of Foreigners and Immigration was clear: the two Pakistanis who beat her in Spain (Gold Nawaz and Short Amen) apart from the fake supporting documents for issuing their cards, they didn’t even have a residence permit in the country!

“…We inform you that from the check that our service carried out both on the electronic database that concerns Corfu and on the central database that concerns the residence permit departments for the whole of Greece, no legality of residence (possession of a legal residence permit) is found for the the two aforementioned” emphasizes the official response document of the service, which even points out for one of the two, Qasim Amin, that after the relevant check “it appears that he had applied to the service of the Directorate of Foreigners and Immigration of the Central and Western Sector. Attica which was rejected in October 2023 for reasons of submitting false documents. The above department sent a relevant file with the specific information to the Athens Prosecutor’s Office, which our department will also do by announcing to the Prosecutor the criminal act (according to article 38 of the Criminal Code D) as we are obliged to, for any illegal action by foreigners and those involved in their illegal affairs”.

After all this and after the federation argued that it cannot intervene because there was no objection at that time to punish GS Byron and to strip him of his title and three points as stated in the regulation, the Corfu Regional Office appealed to the ASEAD, from which was justified. It took almost four months for ELOK to implement the decision of the ASEAD and this after constant complaints and letters from the GE of Corfu to the competent bodies.

Also noteworthy is the fact that the administration of ELOK under Kyriako Katsora it has also been reported that in last September’s elections it prohibited the Corfu General Assembly from voting, on the grounds that… two years before, in 2022, irregularities had been found in the elections of its union.

At six, treasurer the… seventh

It has also been reported that in the six-member Board of Directors that emerged from the last elections, a… seventh, the Ev. Rainy daywho was a candidate for alternate and not regular member and was even placed in the position of treasurer! At the same time, the Board of Directors has two members from the same union (Renaissance KK), which is expressly prohibited by the statute.

Be that as it may, both the case with the Pakistanis and the complaint about falsified game tickets in the championship are pending in the EEC Fan Character Committee (EFIPED), as well as the one about the exclusion of the Greek Football Association of Corfu from the September elections.

Complaints about scandals in 2019 as well

And in the past (2019) there were reports of complaints and reports of scandals within ELOK (then chaired by Joseph Nikita and in which the current president was vice president Kyriakos Katsoras), again with FA forgeries but also with… Pakistani referees who allegedly signed FA without their knowledge! At the time, “Ethnos tis Kyriaki” had published the existence of a ring, in which five unions and two coaches were allegedly involved, which “constructed” virtual matches with sportsmen and women in order to get sports entrance bonuses to universities.

In fact, at that time two championships of that season were also canceled by the Ministry of Sports: the Panhellenic Women’s Indoor Championship and the youth/men’s competition. According to those reports, the registration of nine sportsmen and six sportswomen from the special list of distinguished ones for the scoring of their admission to higher education was revoked by the GGA.

The federation of I. Nikitas had threatened to appeal to the Justice, claiming that they were implicating it without having any idea about the circuit, while the member – at the time – of the Board of Directors Mr. Katsoras (the current president of ELOK) in his statements to ERT had downplayed the cancellation of the two championships: “We have been asked by the GAA to cancel two of the seven championships due to various reasons of irregularity. These reasons have to do with the insufficient funding of our federation by the state. We can’t run the leagues properly to watch them and control exactly what’s going on.”

For its part, the Deputy Ministry of Sports stated: “It was found that matches were played without official referees, match sheets were submitted to the league committee weeks after the alleged date of their performance, while referees who whistled matches then competed as athletes. Their illegal conduct was established after a thorough investigation by the Directorate of Competitive Sports of the GGA”.