ISLAMABAD – “I was aware of the match fixing scandal of my teammates”,Shahid Afridi makes new stunning revelations in his autobiography.
Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi has claimed that he was aware of theexchange of messages between his teammates and a bookmaker before the 2010spot-fixing scandal but then coach Waqar Younis refused to act despitebeing provided with evidence.
Making another startling revelation in his autobiography ‘Game Changer’,Afridi said he stumbled upon a series of SMS messages between bookie MazharMajeed and some Pakistan players before ‘News of the World’ broke the storyin a sting operation.
The spot-fixing scandal happened in August 2010 during Pakistan’s tour ofEngland and then captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir werebanned by the ICC for their involvement.
Afridi claimed he had lashed out at the team management for turning a blindeye to the issue when he confronted them with evidence prior to the scandalthat rocked world cricket.
“…the management gave a damn… typical obfuscation and delay tactics;the Pakistani management’s head was in the sand. Maybe the management wasscared of the consequences. Maybe they were invested in these players astheir favourites and future captains…I really can’t say,” Afridi wrote inthe book.
He said he was in Sri Lanka on a tour (Asia Cup in June 2010) when hereceived transcripts of the text messages from Majeed and Butt’s ‘agent andmanager’, who was also prosecuted.
“It is pure coincidence how I got hold of them. And it’s got something todo with a kid, a beach and a repairman,” said Afridi.