It was heartbreaking when spot-fixing scandal came to the fore. There was depression, a lot of frustration and anger over what happened. Wherever we went the media followed us, even on helicopters, showing what we are doing.
Every move of us was being watched. Cricket is a sport where you make friends and not enemies and not run away from anyone. It was tough but I must give credit to the boys because still they could focus on the game and manage a 3-2 result in the one-dayers. When Salman Butt was made the captain I thought we have finally found a captain who can go on for a longer period of time because we have been struggling without a captain. Butt could have led Pakistan for the next seven to ten years. I never knew all this was happening and I feel so bad it all happened. I wish I could even have thought of it. I met Mazhar Majeed many times during the series. I was told he was the agent of the boys and looks after their contracts. It never occurred to me that he was such a kind of person. I am happy that it has all ended now, but ended in a bad way.
Never had I had this feeling (that players were involved in fixing). Maybe I was too naive, I guess, because I cannot think of any match being fixed. That is why when Justice Malik Qayyum’s report on match-fixing came out I could not get the right picture. I never realised it because I consider cricket as a top profession and I played it clean. So it is so sad this has happened and I will be happy if cricket from now on will be clean. This incident is a lesson to the youngsters. I hope youngsters will learn from it and realise that spending time in jail is not easy.” Justice was overdue and I am happy it is being done. The world can understand and now look at Pakistan with a cleaner eye and probably a cleaner heart.
