Former Pakistan cricketer Rashid Latif has accused cricket board officials of being involved in match-fixing instead of the players.

He believes that cricket boards always support players against match-fixing but do not look at the officials who might be involved in such acts. The 51-year-old spoke about ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit also which overlooks board officials.

He said, “The cricket boards have always given support to players accused of fixing. We always blame the players. Yes, they are involved in fixing. But are cricket authorities not to be blamed as well. The ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit tells players to stay away from certain individuals. But the cricketers are playing franchise cricket for teams owned by the same individuals with whom they are suggesting to stay away from. It’s a big problem.”

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Latif went on to say that the players involved in fixing cannot be completely blamed because any player cannot be involved unless there is an official also connected to it. Some of the officials who are at the post because of their political contacts aren’t always clean according to the former cricketer.

He said, “I won’t completely blame a player for fixing. Players are just pawns, they are being utilized by the top board members. The board has a larger role to play in fixing. If no member from the board is involved, then they will always punish a player. But the top officials of the boards, or some members of the boards who have been placed by political contacts, are somewhere involved, and hence, players always get protected.”

“Every cricket board all over the world, have protected their players. Every country has protected their players who were found fixing matches. This is why the window of T20 cricket and franchise cricket had to be created to tell players that do whatever you want to do here, don’t do it in international cricket,” he added.

(With inputs from Hindustan Times)