Contemplated quitting after spot-fixing scandal, says Waqar

Former Pakistan captain Waqar Younis has revealed that he contemplated quitting as the team’s coach in the wake of the spot-fixing scandal in 2010, in which three of the team’s players – Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir – received jail sentences and lengthy bans from the game. Speaking on the sixth episode of ESPNcricinfo Talking Cricket, to be aired on Friday on Sony ESPN, Waqar admitted the experience was “sickening” for the entire team.

“We all were very upset with the whole episode and everyone was down and out, and we couldn’t really play the next day,” Waqar said. “I still remember… the late Yawar Saeed was the manager, and he was very upset and we couldn’t do anything and it was very, very ugly.

“Even at one stage, I thought ‘that’s it, do I really want to work, do I really want to carry on with this whole thing?’ I went back and I spoke to my family and I couldn’t really leave the team at the time. I went back and thought about it and I wanted to back these guys. It’s not their fault, it’s maybe one or two who have done it, but the rest, they don’t deserve all this and if I leave now, it’s going to get worse. Then, Misbah [ul-Haq] took over [as captain] and things started sort of rolling better and we did extremely well after that.”

Recalling his conversation with Amir after his infamous no-ball in the Lord’s Test, Waqar said he expressed bewilderment at how much Amir had overstepped. “Look, when the whole thing happened, we were in a very good situation,” Waqar said. “That was the first morning of the Test match and they were five down when the whole …

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