• Source:JND
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India vs Pakistan: Former Pakistan opener Mudassar Nazar recalled that his team was always under pressure while playing against India in the early 1990s as losing, especially to arch-rivals would flare suspicions of match-fixing and foul play among Pakistani fans.

Pakistan's 1990s cricket team was renowned for its remarkable skill and 1992 World Cup triumph. The decade-long success especially in Test and ODI formats. However, this era was also dominated by the talks of match-fixing and Mudassar acknowledges the players became "increasingly fearful" of public perception.

"I think if you look at Pakistan's team in the 90s, they were, talent wise, as good as Australia in the 90s. But it was a sheer fear factor of losing the game, and I'm going to be a little bit controversial here," Mudassar said in the closing remarks of the Cricket Predicta Conclave as quoted by India Today.

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"The controversy is behind match fixing. There was a lot of pressure on the Pakistan team because every time they lost a game, people thought the game was dubious, the game was fixed. Nobody was prepared to accept that they actually lost to a better team," he added.

Mudassar, who played for Pakistan from 1976 to 1989, scored 6767 runs in 76 Tests and 122 ODIs and bagged 177 wickets in both formats, said the great rivalry between the two neighbouring countries complicates matters further.

"So, at some stage in the early 90s, I was part of that team which was fearful of losing the game, and that was entirely due to match-fixing or fear of people believing the match was fixed," he added.

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"You add another factor there, which is the factor of playing against India. No Pakistani, no Indian, wanted to lose the game. We've seen that in Sharjah and that's why India versus Pakistan here was such a big event," Mudassar said.

"That wasn't the case with the cricket, but with the general public probably. There was a lot of pressure there. Unfortunately, the match-fixing saga took its toll on the Pakistan team," the former Pakistan batter said.