Karachi, Aug 26 (IANS) Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam has warned that speculations about match-fixing are adversely affecting the morale of the national players.
Intikhab said he is confident all the Pakistani players were completely clean and are giving their best each time they take the field in an international game.
“It is very important for us to stop suspecting our players each time we lose because it is affecting them a lot. It is time that the ghosts of match-fixing are buried for ever,” the former Pakistan captain was quoted as saying in ‘The News’ Wednesday.
“More than match-fixing, its false reports of bookies meeting our players and things like that which sort of ruins everything.”
“Even in Sri Lanka, it was speculated that our players were contacted by alleged bookies to throw matches. I must make it clear here that nothing can be far from truth than such baseless reports,” he said.
Reports surfaced during Pakistan’s disastrous tour of Sri Lanka that some Indian bookies tried to contact national team players in their team hotel in Colombo during the three-match Test series. The fact that Pakistan lost two of those Tests from seemingly winning positions only added fuel to fire.
“Everything was blown out of proportion,” he said. “In Colombo, we were staying at one of the Taj hotels and it was full of Indian nationals, some were businessmen while others were tourists.”
“Some of them wanted to be photographed with our players. A few of them even invited Younis for a cup of tea. That’s quite normal but our players still informed us about it. That’s a good thing but suddenly we were flooded with reports of match-fixing attempts and all that.”
“Look at the Ashes,” he said. “Australia had their moments but couldn’t capitalize on them. Even on the last day (of the final Ashes Test) their best batsmen including captain Ricky Ponting was run out and they followed one after the other. Now some people might become suspicious but I believe it only proves that cricket is a game of uncertainties,” he said.
Ricky ponting
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