Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur spoke about the country’s reputation once again dented after the recent Pakistan Super League spot-fixing scandal, which saw five players receive suspensions from the board
“Players become greedy and that’s hurting international cricket in general and the recent case has hurt Pakistan,” Arthur said, on the recent turn of events. Sharjeel Khan, Khalid Latif, Mohammad Irfan, Shahzaib Hasan and Nasir Jamshed have been provisionally suspended by the Pakistan Cricket Board.
The South African singled out opener Sharjeel Khan, stating that he was “sad” that the hard-hitting opener choose to get his name involved in the scandal, “He [Sharjeel] was in the team for all the formats. He had got his name on the map and he got himself fit and he was about to become an explosive player for us and it’s sad,” Arthur added.
The 48-year-old opined that it was greed on the part of the players that led to them dealing with bookies. He also praised PCB’s efforts in trying to eradicate corruption in the sport,
“All the boards including the PCB educate the players of the pitfalls,” he said. “They have gotten reams and reams of lectures from the International Cricket Council anti-corruption unit and they are doing a great job in education”
“There should be no complacency on the part of the players because losing players to the greed of fixing is hugely disappointing,” Arthur added.
Arthur, though, was optimistic about the road ahead and stated that he was “exited” to work with new captain Sarfraz Ahmed, who is now Pakistan’s Limited-overs skipper.