Imran Khan

Former Pakistan captain and a veteran of Pakistan’s 1992 Cricket World Cup winning team, Imran Khan in a recent outing with the press vented his ire against the sorry state of affairs in Pakistan Cricket. Pakistani cricket’s blue eyed boy and a veteran of 88 Tests Imran made it clear that the ongoing match fixing controversy would rob the youth and fans of their belief in the national team.

Imran lamented that a sense of suspicion and disbelief would dawn upon the fans back home if their national team was found lacking pride and commitment. He asked the authorities to implement strict action against the offenders and wanted to put his point clearly that Pakistani cricket shouldn’t be the one to suffer because of a few corrupted individuals.

The spot fixing controversy plaguing Pakistan was triggered off when a sting operation by a British tabloid disclosed the involvement of 35 year old property tycoon and alleged bookie Mazhar Majeed in fixing Pakistan’s test against England at Lords recently, which the former lost by an innings and 225 runs.

Speaking to media former Pakistani skipper Wasim Akram said that this tragic and shameful incident has dampened the team morale. With the upcoming ODI and T20 matches lined up against England the chips will be further down for the returning ODI captain Shahid Afridi. Though the Pakistani and Global media has proclaimed their verdict of labelling the cricketers as guilty, Akram pleaded to wait till a commission is set up to investigate into the matter.

Former Aussie gloveman and a veteran of 119 Tests Ian Healy said that he pitied the players not involved in the scam as their achievements and heroics on the field will always be under the scanner. Healy said that that he knew how it felt to be in a sticky position like this as even a triumphant Aussie team of which he was a part in 1995 was accused of fixing matches in their tour of Sri Lanka.

Defending Pakistani Keeper Kamran Akmal, Healy said that he doubted his involvement in this mess as the Pakistani gloveman was actually suffering from a slump of form behind the stumps and it was not intentional. Healy said that during Pakistan’s tour of Australia Akmal had come up to him for keeping advice.

By: Soubhik Ray

Tags: Ian Healy, Imran Khan, Kamran Akmal, Mazhar Majeed, Pakistan, Wasim Akram