Kevin Pietersen bashes players who gets involved in match fixing

Former English batsman Kevin Pietersen bashed all the players who ‘take shortcuts’ and fix matches in return of money and said they should undoubtedly be banned for life. The Melbourne Stars overseas recruit was interviewed after a report in an Australian paper brought out minute details of how young players were being approached by bookies via the social media. The star batsman has no sympathy for those who indulge in this criminal acts as he said everyone is well educated about the norms and policies of the game and risks involved in taking such a step.

Speaking to cricket.com.au Pietersen said, “It really pisses me off when I see people taking the short cuts.I’ve never taken shortcuts in training, and when people start taking shortcuts for a little bit of cash, it annoys me.  “

“I don’t think we’re going to stop it. Whenever there’s television, the reality is it’s going to be there. But I think Cricket Australia does as good a job as any nation around the world in trying to combat it. We get all the meetings and all the information. They always give the players all the information they need, they tell them all the stories, they talk about how approaches are, they talk about everything that goes on with it.”

“If you’re one of those players who gets approached, and you make the stupid decision to go down the wrong avenue, you’ve just got to belt them away from cricket. Because it really irritates me, it annoys me.”

Pietersen stated that he hasn’t been approached by a bookie ever in his life but due to his involvement in the T20 Challenge in South Africa he knows how it works. He also said that players from every age group are vulnerable to approach.

“I’ve never been approached, never seen it. I’ve heard stories, I’ve heard how they approach and how they go at stuff in the past couple of weeks. I know exactly what went down in South Africa and it’s scary how it happens. I’m not going to go into how it happens, but it’s scary how it happens. It’s not a nice situation to be put in.

“It would be silly to think that’s it’s just young players.  “There are guys coming to the end of their careers – what do cricketers do at the end of their careers? They’re not footballers (earning lots of money)

“Some cricketers have earned a good whack (of money) to not worry about what happens after cricket. But there are some guys who go ‘what do I do? Do I coach, do I set up a business?’

“If you get offered the amount of money that some of these guys get offered later in their career … the eyes open up. So I wouldn’t say it’s just a young cricketer’s issue, “Pietersen concluded.