Match-fixing was at its worst in 1996: Akhtar

Karachi, Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar today claimed that match-fixing was at its peak in 1996 and said the environment in the dressing room was quite bad. “Trust me, it was the worst possible dressing room environment at that time,” Akhtar said on a Pakistan news channel.
“There was a lot going on than just cricket and it was difficult to focus on cricket in the dressing room. It was a bad environment,” he added.
The controversial pacer’s claims have come just two days after Pakistani stalwarts — Javed Miandad and Shahid Afridi — settled a dispute that had the potential of once again bringing up match-fixing allegations and scandal in Pakistan cricket. Following mediation from third parties, former captain Miandad took back allegations that Afridi had fixed matches for money and he himself caught him doing that. Afridi had threatened to take legal action against Miandad unless he apologised and took back his words.
The ‘Rawalpindi Express’ said he was glad that the dispute had been resolved. “I tell you if this matter had gone to court, there would have been more dirty linen washed in public and lot of names would have again come up,” he said.
He said Miandad had perhaps gone overboard with his allegations against Afridi but felt that Afridi should have avoided making disparaging remarks about a senior player. Akhtar said that, in 2010, he had also advised left-arm pacer Mohammad Amir to keep away from questionable characters in England. “I told him he had a big future ahead of him and he should be careful about the company he kept. Unfortunately it all led to the spot-fixing scandal in 2010,” he said.
He also conceded that spot-fixing and corruption remained a menace in international cricket. “I tell you in the Nineties we had one of the greatest teams and we should have won the 1999 World Cup final against Australia,” he said.