"Did what I felt was supposed to be done, my onus was finished" - Aamer Sohail on match-fixing controversy
Former Pakistan captain Aamer Sohail has stated that he did what he felt needed to be done when the match-fixing controversy rocked the nation in the late 90s. He added that what happened after that wasn’t in his hands.
Aamer Sohail was, in fact, leading the team when the fixing controversy broke out. He was one of the whistleblowers. According to experts, his international career came to a premature end because of the same.
In a YouTube interaction on Cricket Life Stories, Aamer Sohail said that he did what he felt was right, and there was nothing else he could do. Asked if he got enough support in the matter, the former cricketer diplomatically replied:
“I did what I felt was supposed to be done. I am not the judge and the jury. I witnessed something which I brought to notice of the board and that was it. My onus was finished. The onus was then on someone else.”
Aamer Sohail played his last international match in 2000, finishing with 47 Tests and 156 ODIs.
Don’t agree with the term whistleblower: Aamir Sohail
While Aamer Sohail has often been referred to as the whistleblower in Pakistan’s match-fixing scandal, the man himself doesn’t agree with the term, given the context in which it is used. Explaining his stance, Aamer Sohail said:
“I don’t agree with the term whistleblower. Either you called it whistleblower or you say match-fixing is okay, it is legitimate. If you say it is legitimate, then whistleblower is fine. If it is not legitimate, then it has to be a different term. We told our cricket board way before my tenure as captain that something fishy is happening, you have to take care of it. Rashid Latif said that in 1994, I was asked the same year. We were supposed to tell the cricket board, they were supposed to take action. It is ICC’s and the cricket board’s headache.”
In May last year, Aamer Sohail reopened old wounds when he targeted former captain Wasim Akram in an interview with Geo TV. Leveling some shocking allegations against Akram, Sohail had said:
“The biggest contribution by Wasim Akram for Pakistan cricket was making sure Pakistan does not win a World Cup after 92. Imran Khan should be very grateful to him and he is by awarding him the presidential award. If he [Akram] was sincere with Pakistan, we would have easily won the 96, 99 and 2003 World Cups. All of this drama happened for a reason. This should be investigated. The culprit behind all this should be brought to the forefront.”
Incidentally, Aamer Sohail and Akram were two of the key contributors in Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup triumph.