Legendary Australian spinner Shane Warne has dropped another bombshell by revealing that former Pakistani captain Saleem Malik offered him hundreds of thousands of dollars to save Pakistan players from an embarrassing defeat.
Shane Warne, who is hailed as one of the greatest bowlers, used to give nightmares to the batters with his lethal bowling. He is still the second-highest wicket-taker in the history of the longest format of the game with 708 wickets to his name.
Recently, Shane Warne claimed that he was offered a whopping amount of US$200,000 ($AUD276,000 and approx INR 1.5 crore) bribe by Malik to perform poorly in a Test match against Pakistan. The said incident is believed to have happened at the end of the game on Day 4 of the Karachi Test match in 1994. In his upcoming documentary ‘Shane’ on Amazon Prime, Shane Warne said
“I need to see you.” He added, “We’re feeling pretty confident that we’re going to knock over Pakistan. I knock on the door, Saleem Malik answers the door. I sit down, and he goes, ‘Good match we’ve got going’. I went, ‘Yep, I think we should win tomorrow though’.”
“He goes, ‘Well we can’t lose …. you don’t understand what happens when we lose in Pakistan. Our houses will get burnt down, out family’s houses will get burnt down’,”
Further, Warner revealed how Malik offered him and his teammate Tim May a sum of $276,000 bribe to bowl a string of wides and to not look for wickets. He revealed
“I don’t really know what to say,” Warne claimed.“I just sort of sat there, stunned. And then I go, ‘F*** you, mate. We’re going to beat ya’.”
However, Warner had an unforgettable series at that time. He was given the Player of the Match award for his 8/150. But the Pakistan cricket team had won the game with a narrow one victory. Talking about the same, Warne said :
“When you talk about match-fixing now, people hope it doesn’t go on. Back in that time, 30 years ago, there was no talk about it. It had never raised its head anywhere in any sport. When he offered me that, it was a bit like, ‘What the hell?’ I was blown away, I didn’t know anything about it.”
Notably, after they were offered the money, Warne and Tim had also informed Mark Taylor and national coach Bob Simpson about that incident.
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