Sachin was once tampering the ball it with his nails: Younis Khan

Recently retired legendary Pakistan batsman Younis Khan opened up about his career highlights, ups and downs in an exclusive interview with a Pakistani news channel. The veteran recently became the first and only Pakistani to aggregate over 10000 runs in cricket and also made the most centuries in Test cricket for his country. As captain, he also led Pakistan to World T20 glory, in 2009 their first major trophy since 1992.

Life Ban Imposed in 2009

Speaking about the life ban that was imposed on him soon after the 2009 T20 World Cup that Pakistan won, Younis listed the unwarranted accusations, “They took statements from their own employees that Younis Khan shouldn’t be in the team, no reason given. I was in Karachi when we saw the news, my brothers were shocked and were asking what’s going to happen now. In the 2nd or 3rd week, they came up with the accusation that I left my team without informing them. I had asked the Chairman! They accused me of benching players based on my dislikes. They said I deliberately underperformed,” he was quoted as saying by PakPassion.

Defending himself pragmatically, Younis made it clear that the PCB and board officials had seen him in the wrong light and he was always confident that he was free of any wrongdoing. “I said nothing will happen, insha’Allah the ban will be removed in six months as they have nothing on me. I had given them a hard time since a few months and this was their way of getting back at me.”

Eventually, there was so much pressure on them that after 3 months they said I need to pay a 50K rupees fine and the ban will be removed. I said no, I will only come under your hands if I had made a mistake. The ban went on for another month but I was then back in the team after that”

“I wish that my hearing after the ban in front of the PCB at NCA is aired someday,” he asserted, confident that the absurdity and falsity of the allegations would be justly revealed.

Fixing allegations

Speaking about an Australia-Pakistan Test that had come under the scanner due to excessive chances that Pakistan grassed, that resulted in an Australia victory, Khan had a strong opinion. “Regarding Kamran Akmal’s missed chances in Sydney Test, these things happen when players are under so much pressure. If there is any suspicion, why has he come back to the team so often, even recently? If there is evidence against him then it should be brought out in the open otherwise the matter should be left alone,” he said.

Pakistan had also faced a lot of media pressure after the loss in the blockbuster semi-final in the 2011 World Cup against India, where they had failed to chase down 269 despite the presence of Misbah at the crease. Regarding that, Younis said, “Regarding the Mohali match, Misbah-ul-Haq has always played with the same style since he became captain in 2010. He didn’t change his style or his batting position. If you say that he played slowly, he just played how he always does. People say the same thing about me, people said that I take time. But that’s not a new thing, that’s how it’s always been since the start of my career.”

He stated that he had never been approached by match-fixers nor had he ever encountered a situation with them- “I have never been approached my fixers. The reason for that is that when I leave the ground, I keep out of the picture. Where does fixing start from? We’re educated about it, that it starts from traps and plots from approaches. When I started playing cricket, I felt that I want to represent my country well and my family is behind me.”

Even if I wanted to do anything funny, I have a family and how will I face them after that? I still live in the same place where I did when I first came to Karachi 30 years ago. I knew that if my name ever comes up in match-fixing or there’s a picture taken of me dancing in some club, or if I was spotted sitting with some girl in a lobby, I will be in trouble and won’t be able to face my relatives. I never got any offers at all from fixers.”

Ball tampering

Ball tampering incidents have been much talked about recently. Many cricketers’ reputations have also been tarnished due to a lot of such accusations. While conceding that ball tampering is very common and even Sachin had been guilty of it, Younis said that it needs to be stopped.

“Ball tampering happens, people do it in different ways. England and Australia use a gum or a sweet to shine the ball. Du Plessis did it with his zipper and even Sachin was once doing it with his nails but these things weren’t paid much attention to because of the strong cricket boards. If any extreme or obvious tampering is done, it should be stopped so that future generations and the kids know it’s wrong.”

However, he did reveal an incidence when the media made up false reports that accused him of one such encounter.
“Some journalist in Islamabad made up news that I met with some bookies and had dinner. I was the one who complained, and I was accused! So I have always tried to stay with my family and team mates and the lesser I go out in public, the less I am likely to encounter such scenarios,” he stated.