Waqar Younis terms spot-fixing as cancer in sports

Former Pakistani cricketer, Waqar Younis, recently expressed his disappointment at the recent influx of unscrupulous activities in the Pakistan cricket circle. The Pakistan Super League (PSL) has been a breakthrough innovation for the country but the T20 league saw itself being plagued by the menace of spot fixing last year.

Some of the big names of Pakistan cricket like Sharjeel Khan and Nasir Jamshed were found guilty of spot fixing in the tournament. This is not the first time that the country faced embarrassment due to the corruption in the sport. Back in the 2000s, several cricketers had seen their names float around in an infamous scandal.

The 2010 spot fixing scandal remains to be the worst for them till date. Three top cricketers, including the then captain Salman Butt, were found guilty of the offence. Waqar Younis recently quoted gambling and spot-fixing as cancer in the sporting world. He urged the cricket boards to take strict action against the same. He further added that the Pakistan cricket is now ensuring that they take this matter very seriously.

“The menace of spot-fixing and gambling is like cancer for all sports including cricket and it is very important cricket boards take all steps to root out this problem from all cricket,” quoted Waqar Younis.

“We are now carrying out a strict monitoring of all players in our franchise and we are confident that there will be no repeat of the last PSL incident this time,” he added further.

On the T20 cricket

On a different note, he was asked to speak about the recent invasion of T20 cricket in the world cricket. A plethora of shortest format of the game leagues have come to the fore. Waqar Younis, who recently joined Islamabad United as Chief Mentor, mentioned that Test cricket still remains to be the ultimate parameter to judge a cricketer.

“Even now everyone knows that no player becomes a big player until he has played and performed in Test matches which is a real challenge,” conceded the former cricketer.