Was surrounded by fixers such as Amir and Asif, says Shoaib Akhtar
Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar claimed that there was a lot of match-fixing going on during his tenure as a player and he was surrounded by match fixers like Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif. Amir, Asif, and former skipper Salman Butt were banned for spot-fixing against England in 2011.
Pakistan's cricket team have recently had episodes of match-fixing that have plagued some of their young talents like Mohammad Irfan, Sharjeel Khan, etc. who have been guilty of fixing in PSL matches. Similarly, Shoaib Akhtar threw light on the time when he played for Pakistan by saying that we used to play against 21 players, among which 10 were from his own team. This showed the amount of match-fixing that used to happen during his time as a player and he was quite vocal about it.
"I was always of the belief that I can never cheat Pakistan, no match-fixing but I was surrounded by match-fixers. I was playing against 21 people (sic) -- 11 theirs and 10 ours. Who knows who was the match-fixer," Akhtar said during a talk show 'Rewind With Samina Peerzada'.
"There was so much match-fixing. Asif told me which all matches they had fixed and how they did it."
When Amir and Asif were young and taking huge strides into international cricket, Akhtar was in the twilight of his career and was like a mentor to the youngsters. He claimed that he made them understand the ill-effects of accepting to fix a match and he believed that they were mature enough to concentrate hard on their game and not on the other external factors. But maybe the greed for money swayed them from their path and that is what cost them both mentally and physically.
"I tried to make Amir and Asif understand. What a waste of talent. When I heard about this, I was so upset that I punched the wall," said the 44-year-old retired pacer.
"Pakistan's two top bowlers, smart, intelligent and the two perfect fast bowlers were wasted. They sold themselves for a little money," Akhtar added being extremely dejected.
Mohammad Amir made a comeback in 2016 and has been a regular part of the Pakistan white-ball team ever since, while Mohammad Asif never played for Pakistan again. These two were at the top of their bowling form when this episode took place and thus Akhtar believes that Pakistan's team could have reached a different level had they not engaged themselves into spot-fixing. However, he also sees this as a lesson to other youngsters to work hard and not get lured by such fixers.
