‘Greedy players hurting game’

Pakistan’s head coach Mickey Arthur said he felt “gutted” over a fresh alleged spot-fixing scandal that has engulfed his team, adding any players found guilty had themselves to blame.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has provisionally suspended Sharjeel Khan, Khalid Latif, Mohammad Irfan, Shahzaib Hasan and Nasir Jamshed on charges linked to spot-fixing and meetings with bookmakers in the recently concluded PSL.

Arthur, who took over as coach in May last year, said players “need to take responsibility for their actions”. He added: “Players become greedy and that’s hurting international cricket in general and the recent case has hurt Pakistan.”

He singled out the loss of opener Sharjeel Khan, who scored three consecutive half centuries in the ODI series in Australia in January, as a major blow. “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.”

But he added players could not plead ignorance about a failure to report approaches by would-be fixers because they had been warned repeatedly. “All the boards including the PCB educate the players of the pitfalls. “They have gotten reams and reams of lectures from the ICC 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,” he added.