LAHORE, Nov 11: Former cricket captain Imran Khan today testified before a judicial inquiry that some Pakistani players were involved in corruption and took bribes to throw the matches. ``I am sure some Pakistani players were involved in the betting,'' Khan testified and revealed that Sharjah and Bombay are the two big betting centers.Khan recalled a match played in Sharjah in 1989 when several Pakistani players had taken money to throw the match.
To prevent his team from losing, Khan said he took all of Pakistan's previous earnings in the tournament and bet that amount on his team to win. Khan said he was warned by another former captain Javed Miandad about his renegade players attempts to throw the match. When he heard, Khan said: ``I was worried. . . It was quite unusual... After careful thinking I finally decided to bet all the money we had made in the other matches on our team. That is how we won the match.''
The inquiry is investigating allegations against Wasim Akram and Salim Malik. Khan saidhis first introduction to match-fixing was nearly two decades ago during a tour of India. Then the Pakistan captain was Asif Iqbal, who told his Indian counterpart that he had won the toss without looking at the coin.
Pakistan lost that Test match.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.