Former Pakistan coach has come out emphathizing with the Pakistan cricketers over the match fixing scandal, stating that it is not always greed that motivates people to do the things they do, recalling a hair raising moment when he held the reins.
Geoff Lawson claims that the culture in Pakistan, particularly the economic conditions, are too far removed from the rest of the world that an understanding is in order. While he does not condone those who indulge in fixing matches, he says there are other compulsions such as death threats, kidnapping, to families that forced some decisions over other more moral ones.
Here he recalls one such incident, “I went to his (the captain’s) room and he was standing there with a very sombre-looking selector.
“This selector said: ‘We must pick (the player), I have been told that if he is not in the team tomorrow, my daughter will be kidnapped and I will not see her again.’”
“At first we both (Lawson and the captain) laughed, but then we realised he was being serious. Our ( PCB) chairman then called the president, Pervez Musharraf, who in turn phoned the people behind the threats and said they had better reconsider or else. The next we heard the matter had been resolved.”
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