Table of Contents
Pakistan boasts a rich cricketing heritage, with a proud lineage of players who have donned the greens of the country and brought several laurels back home.
Their rivalry with old-foes India is compared along the lines of Australia and England for the Ashes. When it comes to viewerships, there is no event greater in cricket than that of a clash between India and Pakistan.
Over the years, the country has produced some serious talents, namely, Zaheer Abbar, Javed Miandad, Abdul Qadir, the dreaded trio of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, and Imran Khan.
As a matter of fact, during the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, Pakistan had the better of India in all formats of the game.
However, their reputation has been tainted repeatedly due to match-fixing and spot-fixing allegations. Thus, bringing down the efforts from legends of the game such as Saeed Anwar, Mohammad Yousuf, Inzamam ul Haq, Shoaib Akhtar, Saqlain Mushtaq and several others.
Today, let’s have a look at the infamous list of players involved in spot or match-fixing:
Umar Akmal
The most recent of fixing case which surfaced from Pakistan is of Umar Akmal. He was one of the most talented cricketers in their circuit. However, disciplinary and fitness issues spiralled his promising career down.
Saleem Malik
Former captain Saleem Malik recently apologized to the Pakistan public for his involvement in match-fixing, after being charged in 2000. Malik was earmarked to be one of the greats for Pakistan batting. However, Malik hasn’t played any cricket since, with PCB overlooking him for the position of the coach.
Salman Butt
Butt, another captain involved in spot-fixing charges, during Pakistan’s England tour forced his bowlers to overstep in the Test matches.
Also, Butt dropped some catches deliberately after taking bribes from Mazhar Majeed. Butt was banned by the ICC, and also served jail time after being convicted by London Courts.
Mohammad Asif
Asif’s performances during his years in international cricket forced enthusiasts to draw comparisons of him with Australian legend Glenn McGrath.
His immaculate line and lengths troubled even the greatest batsmen of his era. However, Asif’s promising career was cut short due to his involvement in spot-fixing with Butt and Mohammad Amir.
ICC also handed Asif a five-year ban. The pacer even had to face jail time after being convicted by Scotland Yard.
Mohammad Amir
One-third of the disgraced Pakistani trio involved in the spot-fixing case of 2010 in England, Amir was in his teens when he committed the error, under orders from his captain Butt. Amir bowled a couple of huge no-balls, which raised red-flags for the Anti-Corruption Unit of ICC.
Unlike Asif and Butt, PCB pardoned Amir for his crime and made his international comeback in 2016. However, Amir has now retired from Test cricket.
Danish Kaneria
Kaneria, during the early 2000s, was an integral part of the Pakistan team, especially in Tests. However, he went out of favour in the national side.
After years of denial, Kaneria, in 2018 finally admitted to pushing his former Essex teammate Mervyn Westfield to spot-fix during a county match in 2009, for which the latter was sent to jail.
Kaneria was banned for life and described as “a grave danger to the game of cricket” by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), who also forbade Westfield for five years.
Mohammad Irfan
The 7′ 1” bowler troubled even the best with his natural towering bounce. However, in 2017, Irfan was suspended for one year after failing to report for spot-fixing. After breaching PCB’s Anti-corruption code during Pakistan Super League (PSL), Irfan was fined with one million rupees.
Other prominent names include:
- Nasir Jamshed
- Sharjeel Khan
- Khalid Latif
- Mohammad Nawaz
- Naveed Arif
- Atta-ur-Rehman
