New Delhi: Former Pakistani speed star Shoaib Akhtar on Friday said that the most of the Asian players engage themselves in match-fixing due to the low payments.
Giving an interview to Indian media, Akhter said,“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.”
He further said that that in 2008, he did not have enough money to buy his personal car adding that he borrowed money from a friend for that purpose.
“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,” said Akhtar.
Three Pakistani stars, Test captain Salman Butt and pacemen Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif, were jailed last year after being found guilty of spot-fixing during the 2010 Lord’s Test against England.
It was the first time international cricketers were handed prison sentences, a scandal described by then-ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat as the worst corruption case since the Hansie Cronje episode.
Akhtar, whose career was marked by allegations of drug abuse and ball-tampering, took 178 wickets in 46 Tests and 247 in 163 one-day internationals between 1997 and 2011.
“I was cleared on all drug charges,” he said.
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