By Jawad Hussain
KARACHI, Pakistan (TheSportsNEXT) October 6, 2012: You just can’t keep him out of the game! The legend of controversy is back and once again he is no short of yet another controversy. The world’s official fastest bowler in all formats in the history of cricket, Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar, who was renowned more for off-the-field stints than his heroics in the middle, has successfully landed him into news and articles everywhere in the world, yet again for wrong reasons.
This time around, Rawalpindi Express has finally unlocked his lips over the biggest controversy ever hit the Gentlemen’s Game of Cricket, i.e. Fixing.
Former express fast bowler from Rawalpindi is of the view that cricketers are not being paid high by their respective cricket boards which is tempting them to make fast and quick money through spot or match fixing.
Players from Pakistan, India, South Africa, Kenya, Australia, and West Indies have been penalized by their respective cricket boards as well as the International Cricket Council for their alleged, reported, and proven involvement in the scourge of fixing, whether spot of match fixing.
Shoaib Akhtar told an Indian newspaper on Friday, “Fixing happens in our culture because there's less money, there are even lesser opportunities. Cricketers victimised by their boards return (to the team) to mint money. In 2008, I had no money to even buy a car. I had to borrow money from a friend. I handled it, others go astray. Your friends ditch you, (the cricket) board doesn't back you. They all run you down. So when you return you think 'let me teach them a lesson'. Some are corrupt, but some cricketers are turned into criminals by the system."
The rise of international Twenty20 cricket leagues has very much solved the problem of “Cash-Strapped” cricketers in recent years but still cricketers in the Bangladesh Premier League and Indian Premier League have been found guilty of the crime earlier this year. None of these cricketers were under-paid as mentioned by the Rawapindi Express.
Shoaib Akhtar mentioned, "We (in Pakistan) don't have much money in cricket. I wasn't playing for India you know. I was an elite star, still after playing for 14 years I only made seven-eight crore rupees ($1.35-1.54 million)”.
Shoaib Akhtar represented Bollywood king Shahrukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders in one season of the cash-rich Indian Premier League where his Indian host had sprayed expensive gifts on the world’s fastest bowler and his claim of making only 7-8 crore Pakistani rupees looks quite a dubious one.
Shoaib Akhtar captured 178 wickets in 46 Test matches and 247 wickets in 163 One Day Internationals for Pakistan during 1997-2011 and with Pakistan-India bilateral ties soaring after the Mumbai attacks, he didn’t really get a big chance to make money at the Indian Premier League but one season was good enough for him to enjoy the stardom and razzmatazz of the world’s richest cricket league.
Two of the three Pakistani cricketers sentenced in British jails for their proven involvement in the infamous spot fixing scandal were also part of that Indian Premier League edition. Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif had represented Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils respectively but failed to make a real impact and had to sit out in most of the games.
Mohammad Amir, the third tainted cricketer in that spot-fixing scandal, was yet to make his international debut by then and with he along with Mohammad Asif coming from a poor background does second Shoaib Akhtar’s claims but still cricket leagues across the world give enough earning opportunities to top performers these days.
But as they say, “With Money, Comes Corruption”, things are getting worst by each passing year as players are easily getting lured by financial and sexual offerings which puts a lot more pressure on the governing International Cricket Council and its anti-corruption unit to up its vigilance in all cricket matches, not just the international matches, if they are serious to stop the scourge of fixing in cricket.
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