Hyderabad: Pakistan's former wicketkeeper-batsman Zulqarnain Haider has revealed how match-fixing takes place in Pakistan cricket, the rate of the players involved, and how favouritism takes precedence over talent in Pakistan.
- In an recent interview with a YouTube channel, Haider claimed that the match fixing in Pakistan begins from a grass-roots level and, players, coaches and selectors conspire with fixing mafia, who for the sake of money help them advance in their career.
- According to Haider, even the performances of players in club and domestic levels are rigged and players are tactically promoted to national team so that they can fix matches at higher level and help bookies and fixing mafia to fulfill their agendas.
Zulqarnain went onto say that he received death threats in 2006 when he was captaining Lahore and refused to let two players play in his team as they made it to domestic level by giving money to match-fixers.
State of affairs in Pakistan cricket
- Haider also said that the state of affairs in Pakistan cricket team is poor as there is no unity in the team and there are different lobbies of players made for their own political gains. As per Haider, newcomers in the team are mentally tortured and dominated by senior players.
- Regarding his own career which expanded for almost twenty years, Zulqarnain claimed that he has never been involved in such illicit activities but has rather reported them to the board. He also said that Akmal brothers were the part of match-fixing in Pakistan cricket team and despite scoring 88 in his only Test match, he lost his place in the team due to Akmal brothers, with former Pakistan manager Yawar Saeed involved in the conspiracy.
- Haider also revealed that up to Rs 100 million is given to the players for fixing big matches and he said that the likes of famous former and current players including Wasim Akram, Asif Iqbal and Mohammad Amir and their connection to various scandals prove that match-fixing certainly exists in Pakistan cricket.
Curious case of Haider disappearing
Earlier, Zulqarnain had blamed Umar Akmal for his disappearing act during an ODI series against South Africa in 2010, saying he was threatened by the tainted player for not conniving with him to lose a match.
Zulqarnain comments came after the Umar Akmal was recently banned from all forms of the game for three years on corruption charges.
Umar Akmal told Haider to under-perforrm
Zulqarnain claimed that he was forced to leave his team hotel in Dubai and fly out to London under mysterious circumstances after receiving threatening messages from his then teammate Umar and a few others after he refused to under-perform in the third one-day international of the same series.
"I remember telling him to just do his job and carry the drinks. But later he (Umar) and some others directly threatened me and kept on badgering me so much that I came under psychological pressure and fear and flew to London without informing anyone," he said in an interview.
Zulqarnain's promising career ended following that episode in November 2010.
He said the three-year ban on Umar for not revealing spot-fixing approaches is too lenient.
"He has been involved in shady dealings and not only does he deserve a life ban even his property and assets should be seized," Zulqarnain said on Saturday.
Zulqarnain, who is 34 now, had sought asylum in London after leaving the team hotel in Dubai without informing the management.
The wicketkeeper, who scored 88 runs in the only Test he played at Birmingham in 2010 in place of Kamran Akmal, claimed that he had reported the matter of Umar telling him to under-perform to the management.
"But the threats and pressure were too much for me to bear and I left. I was also getting threats from some unknown persons to under perform," he said.
Zulqarnain returned to Lahore in 2011 on the assurances of the then interior minister, Rehman Malik, but he has not been able to resurrect his cricket career.
Pakistan then team's manager, Intikhab Alam, had described Zulqarnain as a troubled young man with mental issues.
