Low payment tempts cricketers into match fixing: Shoaib Akhtar - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has said low payments by the cricket board tempted cricketers into fixing matches. "Fixing happens in our culture because there's less money, there are even lesser opportunities. Cricketers victimised by their boards return (to the team) to mint money," he said. "In 2008, I had no money to even buy a car. I had to borrow money from a friend. I handled it, others go astray," Akhtar, 37, told the Headlines Today news channel. He said: "Your friends ditch you, (the cricket) board doesn't back you. They all run you down. So when you return you think 'let me teach them a lesson'. Some are corrupt, but some cricketers are turned into criminals by the system. "We (in Pakistan) don't have much money in cricket. I wasn't playing for India you know. I was an elite star, still after playing for 14 years I only made seven-eight crore rupees ($1.35-1.54 million)," The News quoted Akhtar, as saying.