In India, Australia, England And West Indies My Name Pops Up When They Talk About Best Bowlers, But In Pakistan, Social Media Generation Calls Me Match-Fixer – Wasim Akram

Legendary Pakistan National Cricket Team left-arm pacer Wasim Akram, who led the Men In Green to the 1999 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup final, has stated that the social media generation in Pakistan still refers to him as a match-fixer.

The 56-year-old played for the Pakistan National Cricket Team between 1984-2003. He played 104 Tests and 356 ODIs in his enormously successful career and bagged 414 Test wickets and 502 ODI wickets. With the bat, he also made some crucial contributions in his career as he amassed 2898 Test runs and 3717 ODI runs.

ICC Teams Rankings | ICC Players Rankings

Meanwhile, Wasim Akram, who is unarguably one of the greatest pacers to ever play the game, was accused of match-fixing a few times in his career. In the 1990s, Ata-ur-Rehman alleged that Akram offered him Rs 3-4 lakh to fix the game. Also, there were rumours that he faked an injury to withdraw from the 1996 World Cup quarter-final game against India.

I have passed that stage in my life where I have to worry about people – Wasim Akram

Speaking to Wide World of Sports, Akram opened up on his match-fixing allegations. He said that he is considered one of the greatest pacers of all time in the countries like Australia, England, the West Indies and India, but this is not the case in his own country as the social media generation in Pakistan still calls him a match-fixer.

“In Australia, England, West Indies and India, when they talk about the World XI, when they talk about the best bowler in the world, my name pops up but in Pakistan, this generation, this social media generation, they are the one who come down, every comment they send, they say, ‘oh, he is a match fixer’, not knowing what it was,” said Akram.

“I have passed that stage in my life where I have to worry about people,” he stated further.

Exclusive: Wasim Akram opens up on his career, Pakistan cricket and dealing with the 'match-fixing' tag. ???#9WWOS #Cricket pic.twitter.com/jDUo0zhnwB

— Wide World of Sports (@wwos) November 20, 2022

Also Read: IND vs NZ: “Usko Toh Main Ek…”- Suryakumar Yadav Reacts To Virat Kohli’s ‘Video Game’ Tweet