Dubai: Sri Lanka’s legendary batsman and Karachi Kings skipper Kumar Sangakkara called for players to respect the game. Answering to a query on the attempt to corrupt the Pakistan Super League through spot-fixing and whether the incident will affect the players, Sangakkara said: “Time will tell. For us it is about concentrating on our cricket. The authorities in place are doing a great job. It is unfortunate that things like that happened. For us, as players, we need to get on with the game and we have a great responsibility to ensure that we respect the game and we ensure that we never leave room for any sort of corruption in cricket.”
Karachi Kings player Shahzaib Hasan were among the three along with Mohammad Irfan of Islamabad United and Zulfiqar Babar of Quetta Gladiators, who were questioned but were cleared of any wrongdoings. Commenting on Hasan, Sangakkara said: “The player from our team was cleared of everything and cleared to play. So, we back him 100 per cent on the field and everything else is a bit sad.”
Talking about Hasan who opened the Karachi innings and hit 19 runs, Sangakkara then said: “We had a good chat with him and he was rattled as anyone would be. Once he was cleared there was a big sense of relief and I thought he batted really well today. Unfortunately, he got out, but he was positive and he was good.”
On Friday, Islamabad United’s Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif were expelled from the tournament after they confessed to meeting an individual linked to an international betting syndicate.
