Picture Credit: Twitter
In the
late 20th and first decade of this century, the Pakistan team members
were accused of being involved in match-fixing. Many top cricketers including Javed
Miandad, Ijaz Ahmed and Aamer Sohail are a few who were alleged. The legal proceedings
had also probed Wasim Akram, who was the alleged centre-point of this fixing scandal
in the 90s.
According
to Miandad’s statement a few years ago, players were not allowed to raise their
voices against Akram, while Sohail claimed that half of the team, at a given time, fixed matches in the last century.
The 2010 spot-fixing scandal witnessed
three Pakistan cricketers, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammed Amir being
banned for ten, seven and five years respectively.
In his
latest testimony to Cricket Pakistan, Miandad revealed the real reason behind the
fixing scandals arising out of the team’s cricketers in the 1990s. He reckoned that the then-players agreed to fix matches to prevent
their career from ending in an abrupt fashion.
However,
he feared about the current crop of cricketers, who can not resort to fixing,
and have to be consistent with their performances to maintain their place. After
a strict sentence to Butt, Asif and Amir, there have been no cases of fixing reported among the Pakistan players.
"Look at
our crickets who have played cricket in the past. I'm not talking about myself,
I've received a lot of offers in the past but I don't go. What will happen to
players who are there right now? They know they don't have anywhere to go if
they don't perform. Fixing happened because of this very reason. Everyone was
scared that their career will be over," said Javed Miandad to Cricket Pakistan.