The game of cricket has had its share of dark days where match-fixing made people question the legitimacy of the sport. A few Pakistani players were recently accused of spot-fixing and have been banned from playing all forms of cricket. The players listed include Harjeel Khan, Khalid Latif, Mohammad Irfan, Shahzaib Hasan and Nasir Jamshed who have been suspended provisionally. Former Pakistan speedster Waqar Younis talked about the threat of fixing in the leagues and in international matches.
While addressing the Islamabad United’s media conference, Younis said,
The roots of fixing are very deep. It still exists at all levels so we need to have joint and concerted efforts to eradicate this menace. My prime task will be to guide the players on and off the field and tell them how to avoid this malpractice as this can easily derail a good career.
Younis also talked about the return of international cricket to Pakistan as Sri Lanka toured them after a gap of 8 years and how it helped them.
With Sri Lanka coming to Lahore, and before that the World XI series and the final of the PSL – that all changed conceptions about Pakistan though we still need to convince the foreign players to tour us and not fear about security.
Here’s the video of the press conference –
The 45-year-old has been retained as the coach of Islamabad United along with newly appointed former Australian player Dean Jones.
Islamabad United
Mishabh-ul- Haq (c), Rumman Raees, Mohammad Sami, Andre Russell, Shadab Khan, Samuel Badree, Iftikhar Ahmed, Amad Butt, Asif Ali, JP Duminy, Luke Ronchi, Faheem Ashraf, Sam Billings, Zafar Gohar, Sahibzada Farhan, Hussain Talat.
Supplementary players: Alex Hales, David Willey, Mohammad Hasan, Mohammad Hasnain
